The Australian state of Victoria has approved a bill allowing assisted dying for the terminally ill.
The state parliament’s Lower House passed Monday the controversial legislation after the Upper House approved the measure last week.
Between the two, the bill saw more than 100 hours of debate over six weeks, including three marathon all-night sessions.
The passage of the government-led bill, which passed the Legislative Assembly (state lower house) on Wednesday, will give patients the right to request a lethal drug to end their lives.
It will be allowed from mid-2019, which will make Victoria, the second most populous state in the country, the only state in Australia with the assisted-dying scheme.
Under the legislation, Victorians with a terminal illness will be able to obtain a lethal drug within 10 days of asking to die, after completing a three-step process involving two independent medical assessments.
It will be accessible only to terminally ill adults over the age of 18 with less than six months to live and to those who have resided in Victoria for at least a year.
“The parliament has just made history, this is a day of reform, a day of compassion, a day of giving control to those who are terminally ill, ” said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who had become a euthanasia advocate after his father died of cancer last year.
“This is a day that I’m very proud to have made this reform and to have led a team that has delivered the sort of leadership that all Victorians can be proud of,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“I’m proud today that we have put compassion right at the centre of our parliamentary and our political process. That is politics at its best and it’s Victoria doing what it does best – leading our nation.”
Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the debate on the bill was longer than any other before it.
“We have seen some fantastic contributions, we’ve had frustrating moments, but ultimately we have landed in a place where Victorians who are confronting terminal illnesses, that are enduring unbearable pain, will have a safe and compassionate option,” she said.
According to the bill, patients in sound mind can apply to use the scheme but it must be determined by multiple doctors that the patient
is suffering from intolerable pain. The scheme stipulates that the lethal medication be self-administered.
According to local media, the legislation includes 68 safeguards, including new criminal offences to protect vulnerable people from abuse and coercion.
The bill will now go to the Governor for royal assent. Then a group will be formed to set up implementation of the scheme, which will decide on the details, including the lethal medication.
While local media said Victoria is the first Australian state to legalize assisted dying, the passage of the legislation on Wednesday comes 20 years after another Australian territory legalized the world’s first voluntary euthanasia law for the terminally ill. That legislation was repealed layer.
The Northern Territory, a quasi-state under the Australian federal government, legalized euthanasia in 1995, becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to do so. Four people had been assisted to die before the federal parliament overturned the law in 1997.
The federal parliament does not have the power to change legislative decisions made by Victoria, which is a state and not a territory.
Last month, an assisted dying bill was defeated by one vote in the Upper House in New South Wales. South Australia also defeated a similar bill by a single vote last year and the Tasmanian parliament rejected similar legislation by just two votes in 2013.
Canberra (dpa)
