Submission to the Queensland Parliamentary Inquiry into aged care, end-of-life and palliative care and voluntary assisted dying

In this submission, we identify a number of end-of-life issues that the Committee may wish to consider during the Inquiry. Where appropriate, we also make recommendations based on our research in the field. 1. The law should permit a narrowly defined cohort of individuals to request assistance to die, within the contraints of a legislative regime that protects the rights and interests of the vulnerable in our community. 2. Although we prefer the enactment of legislation in which providing assistance to die is lawful, an alternative option is to develop prosecutorial guidelines that indicate how discretion to prosecute or not prosecute is likely to be exercised when individuals provide assistance to others to die. 3. The nature of the practice of ‘terminal’ or ‘palliative’ sedation, and the legal and ethical implications of that practice should be considered. 4. The practice of voluntary stopping eating and drinking, and the extent to which palliative care provided to an individual who has stopped eating and drinking is lawful should be considered. 5. Section 282A of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) currently provides protection to persons who administer palliative care at the end of life where the medication provided incidentally also hastens the patient’s death. However, the protection offered to doctors is less than what was previously available at common law. The Committee may wish to consider if this is a desirable position