Latest News
Australia - Victoria
An amendment to Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) law allowing doctor's to raise and discuss VAD with terminally ill patients has been passed by Victoria's parliament.
Australian Capital Territory
"November 3 marks the beginning of the ACT's voluntary assisted dying scheme, making the territory the second-last Australian jurisdiction to legalise it."
The eligibility criteria does not include a time-to-death requirement, but rather, to have an "advanced and progressive medical condition that is expected to cause death and is causing intolerable suffering". This is one of the major proposed changes to the NZ law and is included in Todd Stephenson''s member's bill.
Australia - Northern Territory
A Committee of Australia's Northern Territory Parliament is recommending voluntary assisted dying be adopted across the state with a community based delivery model. It also recommended a territory-wide palliative care strategy.
The committee, in its recommended eligibility criteria, differs from other Australian states that require a 6 or 12 month time-frame by saying that a person to be considered eligible has to have an "... advanced and progressive condition which is expected to cause death, and is causing intolerable and enduring suffering that is actual or anticipated".
Australia - Victoria
The Royal Australian College of GPs has welcomed proposed changes to Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws. One of the changes would allow registered health practitioners to raise the issue of voluntary assisted dying during a discussion about end-of-life options.
Another, that the life expectancy limit for eligibility be raised from six months to a year.
End of Life Choice Amendment Bill
The End of Life Choice Amendment bill, sponsored by MP Todd Stephenson, has been lodged in the ballot and uploaded to Parliament’s website.
The most important proposal in the bill is to replace the words “terminal and likely to die within 6 months” with the words of the successful Australian Capital Territory’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Act … “diagnosed with a condition that, either on its own or with one or more other diagnosed conditions, is advanced, progressive and expected to cause death”.
The bill has also absorbed all 25 recommendations the Ministry of Health made in November 2024. The most important of these is the MoH’s proposal to drop the blanket “gag” on doctors’ raising the topic of assisted dying with a person unless and until the person raises the topic with them. If successfully passed, this proposed MoH amendment would allow doctors to raise the topic with people in their care as part of relevant conversations.
A Member’s bill is not the same as a Government bill: different rules apply. A Government bill is automatically given a place on the Order Paper for discussion. A Member’s bill can only be discussed when it is either:
1. Drawn from a ballot of 73 competing Member’s bills by a stroke of good luck, or
2. Supported by 61 non-executive MPs in order to bypass the ballot system.
MPs Back Assisted Dying Bill in Historic UK Commons Vote
In an historic vote, MPs have approved a bill which would pave the way for huge social change by giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to end their own lives.
It is likely, although not guaranteed, that the House of Lords will approve the bill later this year.
New York Senate Passes Medical Aid In Dying Act
On 9 June 2025 the New York Senate passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act. The bill now advances to the Governor's desk for final approval.
France’s National Assembly votes in favour of legalising assisted dying.
France’s parliament has voted in favour of a bill to legalise assisted dying, paving the way for caregivers to help patients end their lives under some of the strictest conditions in Europe.
It is unlikely to become law before 2026.
Scottish assisted dying bill passes first vote.
A bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland has passed an initial vote at Holyrood.
The proposals would allow terminally-ill, mentally competent adults to seek medical help to end their lives.
Isle of Man passes assisted dying law.
Proposed laws to give terminally ill adults on the Isle of Man the right to choose to end their own lives have been agreed by the Manx parliament.
It means the bill can now be sent for Royal Assent, making it the first parliament in the British Isles to take this step.
Doctors should be able to raise assisted death option.
The biggest issue highlighted by practitioners was that doctors couldn't bring assisted death up with patients, Dr Katie Ben said.
Victoria scraps the "gag clause" banning doctors from raising voluntary assisted dying with patients
Reforms to Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws include removing a gag clause banning doctors from raising VAD as an option and there will no longer be a requirement for patients to be Australian citizens.
The UK parliament is due to vote on the Assisted Dying Bill.
Ahead of this week’s parliamentary vote on the divisive Assisted Dying Bill, Maya Dhillon spoke with three GPs in New Zealand, where assisted dying has been legal for three years.
The Ministry of Health's review of the End Of Life Choice Act has been published.
In 2024, the Ministry of Health completed the first review of the End of Life Choice Act 2019. The results of that review and the recommendations are now (as of 20 November) available on their website.
Kiwis collect Awards at the VADCON24 conference in Queensland.
VADCON24 was a two-day conference for medical practitioners engaged in or interested in voluntary assisted dying (VAD).
Dr Jessica Young, assisted dying researcher with Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington, won the Innovation Award for Emerging Research.
The winner of the Community Champion Award was Tōtara Hospice in South Auckland for their contribution to advocacy, education and innovation in relation to assisted dying in New Zealand. As the only one of New Zealand’s 32 hospices to support assisted dying, this was richly deserved.
Both winners were participants in expert panel discussions at the conference.
There was a wait-list for in-person attendance by medical practitioners from Australia/New Zealand while an international audience attended remotely.
The Queensland University of Technology conference was jointly sponsored by assisted dying advocacy organisation Go Gentle Australia and peak body for medical professionals engaged across the Tasman in voluntary assisted dying (VAD) VADANZ .
The End-of-Life Choice Society NZ is proud to have sponsored both award-winners. We thank them for their patient-centred support of end-of-life patients.
Dementia and Assisted Dying
In acknowledgment of the escalating global health crisis surrounding dementia, the World Federation of Right to Die Societies is proud to announce the launch of its informative 2024 Webinar Series on dementia, titled “Dementia – Glimpsed Futures,” in celebration of World Right to Die Day (WRTDD) on November 2nd.
Public consultation opens on review of the End of Life Choice Act
New Zealanders are invited to share their views on the End of Life Choice Act 2019 as part of a review of the Act. Online consultation will run until 5pm on Thursday 26 September 2024.
Dying together: Why a happily married couple decided to die together.
Jan and Els were married for almost five decades. In early June, they died together after being given lethal medication by two doctors. In the Netherlands, this is known as duo-euthanasia. It’s legal, and it’s rare - but every year, more Dutch couples choose to end their lives this way.
David Levitt feared the worst with his brain tumour diagnosis: that he wouldn’t be able to die by choice
His wife says family ‘disengaged completely from palliative care services’ for fear Catholic hospital wouldn’t provide voluntary assisted dying