Palliative care doctors warn Victoria against legalising euthanasia
Updated
Palliative care doctors are warning the Victorian Government not to legalise euthanasia in its current state, arguing that it prioritises patients who choose assisted suicide at the expense of those receiving end-of-life care.
Key points:
- Victorian Government considering legalising assisted suicide, but palliative care doctors argue the model requires more scrutiny
- Doctors concerned current proposal prioritises those who choose euthanasia over those receiving palliative care
- Parliamentary standing orders require the Government to respond to the committee by this Friday
The Government is considering changing the laws to allow assisted suicide but doctors say expanded palliative care would deliver better results.
Professor Peter Hudson from St Vincent's Health said the evidence behind euthanasia was nowhere near strong enough.
"We're talking about potentially a major shift in a major new public health intervention," he said.
"There needs to be a suitable evidence base behind it, all the side effects of the proposed intervention need to be assessed, and there needs to be a review of this over time in terms of the resources required to implement it.
"And we don't believe that the proposed model has been through that level of scrutiny."
In June, a Victorian parliamentary committee delivered a groundbreaking report which recommended that the State Government allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs.
Professor Hudson said the new system would provide better quality care for assisted suicide than for people who request palliative care.
"If this legislation gets through, the proposal is that if somebody requests assisted suicide, they'd be able to access support from two doctors, potentially see a psychiatrist, and also be allocated a case worker, and I think that's really good and really important that those supports are in place," he said.
"However as it currently stands, if somebody has a terminal illness in Australia at the moment, their chances of getting all those supports are very limited.
"So you have a system where, if you elect assisted suicide you're going to be guaranteed certain supports, whereas if you don't, your chances of getting comprehensive, quality palliative care are less than likely."
He also believes Victoria's politicians have unrealistic expectations.
"There's an assumption that if assisted suicide or euthanasia is supported, then people who avail themselves of this will have a kind of sanitised, completely pain-free death, and that can't be guaranteed," Professor Hudson said.
"Death and dying is messy, like birth. It can't be fixed by a law or a pill.
"And we have evidence in jurisdictions where euthanasia has been supported that for some people, they actually regurgitate the medications they've been given, some people have had seizures, and some people actually it takes them a very long time to die."
Fund palliative care first
His colleague at St Vincent's Centre for Palliative Care, Associate Professor Mark Boughey, said palliative care was a better option for patients.
"Over last 50 years, palliative care has been an evolving, developing part of the healthcare system, and really it should be at this stage a standard of care, but at the moment, the standard of care and the referral processes just don't exist," he said.
Professor Hudson said access to high-quality palliative care in Australia was "a lottery" but he said when it was done well, international evidence suggested it brought better outcomes than euthanasia.
"It's less than about 1 per cent of people with a terminal illness will actually desire euthanasia or assisted suicide," he said.
"The overwhelming majority of people with a terminal illness do not elect euthanasia or assisted suicide, even in jurisdictions where this is available.
"That's not to say these people should be ignored — they shouldn't be. They should receive compassionate and professional care, but again I think it's this resourcing of palliative care, let's get that right first.
"Let's see what happens to our community if we enable quality palliative care rather than launching in to investing in euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide at this point in time."
Parliamentary standing orders require the Government to respond to the committee by this Friday.
Topics: suicide, community-and-society, euthanasia, health, vic, australia
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