Australia is revealed to be ranked 41 in terms of suicide—1,320,000 people in total having committed suicide and with approximately 3,287 dying annually—out of 183 countries (Suicide Rate by Country 2020, August 2019). One method that has recently been observed and could potentially end one’s suffering and the rate of suicide is assisted dying, or well known as assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is medically defined as “the act of providing the means to commit suicide knowing that the recipient plans to use the means to end his or her life…’’ (Sweet & Foley, 2020). Meaning that a fully trained “physician provides prescription medications or other interventions to a patient… that… [they] can use… to commit suicide” (Goldman & Schafer, 2020). Through the legalization of assisted suicide, many elderly and sickly patients can seek instant relief without suffering through the last moments of life. This investigation will explore this debated procedure with the use of legislation, stakeholder perspectives, and cases. Recommendations will also be provided to create, amend or abolish new and existing laws with the state of Queensland.
Legislative Overview
This report will oversee two conflicting pieces of legislation regarding the laws’ perspectives on assisted suicide from different states of Australia. These pieces of legislation are the Queensland Criminal Code Act (1899) and the Victoria Assisted Dying Act (2017). However, other places that have legalized assisted suicide have multiple pieces of legislation, and also regulations preventing it in disapproving countries. The countries that currently provide this practice are Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Colombia, Austria, Bolivia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, France and parts of the USA. However, within Australia’s borders, there are two states that have legalized a way of ending those with terminal illnesses. These states are Victoria (Humanists UK, 2019; QUT, 2020) and Western Australia, who have essentially legalized it based on their Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2019.
The reason that Queensland does not incorporate assisted suicide legislation is because of the Queensland Criminal Code (1899). In Section 311, it states that “Any person who procures another to kill himself or herself; or counsels another to kill himself or herself and thereby induces the other person to do so; or aids another in killing himself or herself; is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for life” (Queensland Criminal Code, 1899). This law prevents the residents in Queensland from committing suicide or integrating any sort of assisted suicide legislation.
The Victoria Assisted Dying Act’s (2017) purpose is “to provide for and regulate access to voluntary assisted dying, and to establish the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board; and to make consequential amendments to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996, the Coroners Act 2008, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 and other Acts”. It consists of more than 140 pages, eleven parts and 143 sections that discuss the considered risks and requirements needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety as a normal and frequently used practice. Parts one, ten and eleven provide all necessary information, definitions and amendments regarding the act and, parts two and three revolve around the criteria and process required to be undertaken before being allowed access to this practice. Actually, receiving a permit and accessing the medication needed is documented in parts four and five and, reviews from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and the creation of the Assisted Dying Review Board are discussed in parts six and nine. Lastly, parts seven and eight involve all notifications, liability protections and offenses if proper procedure is not maintained. Therefore, based on all the provided pages, parts and sections documented within the Victoria Assisted Dying Act (2017), the state of Victoria has identified and investigated all possible factors that can influence how assisted suicide is conducted.
Law in Practice
By legalizing assisted suicide like Victoria, Queensland would be allowing the population to access their own human rights to not suffer. Assisted suicide is a human right due to the several key rights to life, freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, respect for private life, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2016). Victoria’s Assisted Suicide Act (2017) not only lists the procedures and risks of assisted suicide, but it also provides insight into areas needing to be explored. These include assessing the requirements and making a request with medical practitioners, gaining permits, after-death records, and amendments to current laws. The process involves medical practitioners providing the substance used to end the person’s life at their request, and many ethical and legal factors are considered (Nay, Garratt, Fetherstonhaugh, 2014).
Victoria has had over 136 cases assessed, 70 permits approved to “die by self-administering medication” and 11 permits approved to have “medication administered by a practitioner” (Australian Associated Press, 2020). All these are related to Victoria’s Assisted Dying Act (2017), not to mention that in the first six months of its legalization more than 50 people had gone through the process and died (Australian Associated Press, 2020). Whereas, Queensland has only had few accounts of people aiding suicide, which has resulted in them being convicted of murder charges.
One case is of Merin Nielsen, who helped Frank Ward commit suicide after he suffered a stroke and was in pain as a result of prostate cancer, moderate to severe atherosclerosis, and thrombi in his legs and pulmonary emboli. Even though Merin and Frank were unaware of Frank’s medical conditions before the suicide it did not influence the case of death, subsequently resulting in three years of imprisonment with a parole date of August 15, 2012 (R v Nielsen [2012] QSC 29). Another case is when Graham Robert Morant aided and counseled his wife, Jennifer Lee Morant, into committing suicide “by gassing herself in her car with the exhaust fumes” in another case in Queensland. This and the fact he was the main beneficiary of her will, resulting in the court sentencing him to ten years of imprisonment and another six years for a second conviction, which will be served concurrently (R v Morant [2018] QSC 251).
Not only has Victoria been successful in allowing people to have and use their human rights, but it has also decreased the number of suicide occurrences caused by self-harm. In 2009, there were 576 in Victoria and 525 in Queensland; meanwhile, in 2017, Victoria had 621 deaths as opposed to Queensland’s 804. Also, one year after the creation of Victoria’s Assisted Dying Act, there was 563 and 786 deaths in Queensland. Though each state seems to be decreasing in the number of suicides, this could be due to the fact that people are traveling to Victoria to access assisted suicide (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019).
These cases, legislation and statistics prove that Queensland would and will benefit from creating and establishing assisted suicide as a widely used practice. It will not only be an advantage for the court system but the general public, whether they are healthy or seriously sick to stop people from suffering and the amount of aiding murder cases occurring.
People affected by assisted suicide are those who are wishing to end their misery, families and professionals that are necessary to process all the documents and administer the medications or just provide it. Having so many people affected also means that there are many conflicting views regarding the legalization of assisted suicide. First of all, an Australian poll in 2017 has determined that 73% support assisted suicide, with people aged between 18-34 having less support at 68%. Meanwhile, 71% support it between the ages 35-54, and lastly, a high 81% of people aged over 55 support the ideology of assisted suicide (Dying with Dignity, 2017).
Nevertheless, professionals who support assisted suicide have also stated that “popular views traditionally advanced in support…” of assisted suicide “fall under four main augmentative categories…”. These categories are “arguments from individual autonomy and the right to choose, the loss of dignity and the right to the maintenance of dignity, the reduction of suffering and justice and the demand to be treated fairly” (Johnstone, 2020). On the other hand, professionals also say that “the exercise of autonomy cannot include the ending of life…” and that “many dying patients may experience pain and suffering as the result of not receiving appropriate care” (Goldman & Schafer, 2020). Meaning that it is “possible that adequate care and pain management… might relieve suffering without the need for… assisted suicide” (Goldman & Schafer, 2020). Another reason that professionals do not agree with assisted suicide is that “there is a clear ethical distinction between intentionally ending a life and terminating life-sustaining treatments…” and “permitting… assisted suicide may introduce adverse consequences…” (Goldman & Schafer, 2020).
Although, professional opinions do not matter to the person suffering and their families, as these professionals have not taken into account how they are suffering with pain and loss as they wither towards death. Therefore, the families’ and patients’ thoughts toward assisted suicide is that they would be grateful for the opportunity to end their suffering.
Based on the cases and stakeholder perspectives, strengths and weaknesses have been identified to determine whether Queensland should be integrating assisted suicide legislation. The strengths of this practice are that it has already been effective in Victoria and other countries and, various professional and public perspectives have agreed that it will help to end the suffering of older individuals. Other strengths are that suicide rates, the population of older Australians dying painfully due to diseases or cancer and the amount of depressed or suicidal elderly individuals will decrease due to the quick and painless death provided. Weaknesses are that there are still many professional and public views that are conflicted about approval and the current Victoria Assisted Dying legislation (2017) has countless requirements and a lengthy timeframe to apply and acquire the practice. While, there may be a few weaknesses, but the number of strengths of assisted suicide outweighs these weaknesses.
Recommendations
Recommendations identified from the investigation and analysis of assisted suicide within other states and countries are that Queensland should follow Victoria and Western Australia’s footsteps. Though, Queensland’s recommended choices are to create assisted suicide legislation from scratch or use the current legislation from the states of Victoria and Western Australia. Creating legislation from scratch or with limited knowledge, plans and more is extremely risky considering many stakeholders are against or unsure of this practice. However, Australia has been creating laws this way for decades. Even so, by using Victoria or Western Australia’s legislation will allow Queensland to have an insight and idea on how the practice needs to manage and conduct. As well as what risks, processes, considerations and requirements are going to be managed and covered throughout the law. This will help to ease public concerns regarding the potential risks and miscalculations that could occur. Between the two potential recommendations to incorporate assisted suicide laws into Queensland, the most effective and less risky option is to use Victorian or Western Australian legislation as a guide. This recommendation will help to eliminate the weaknesses, risks and concerns that come with the legalization of this practice. Doing this will allow the residents of Queensland to express their human rights to how they wish to live their lives or to end their suffering if extremely unwell.
Conclusion
Assisted suicide most definitely should be introduced into Queensland’s legislation, especially after benefiting the states of Victoria and Western Australia. It is only an advantage to have the suicide rates and the number of unwell elderly decrease with the introduction of this medical practice. Assisted suicide legislation will also differ depending on the location and values of the countries accepting it within their borders.