In an historic and humane victory for commonsense, Victoria has become the first state to legalise assisted dying choice!  Well done Victoria!

There was a deplorable lack of Christian compassion for the terminally ill with unbearable suffering shown by the MLCs opposing the NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, resulting in its recent defeat. Indeed, many of the Victorian MPs opposing Voluntary Assisted Dying showed a similar lack of compassion and empathy, but thankfully these were outnumbered when it came to the final vote.

To sum up briefly…..

  • The vote on the NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill was lost in the NSW Legislative Council (upper house) by 20 votes to 19 on Thursday 16 November 2017.
  • The Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill passed the lower house on Oct 20, 2017, by 47 votes to 36, after a long and sometimes bitter debate. It then moved to the upper house.
  • The Bill passed the Victorian upper house by 22 votes to 18, but with amendments. This meant it had to go back to the lower house for the amendments to be accepted.
  • Back in the lower house, Wednesday 29.11.2017, there was an attempt to defer debate on the Bill indefinitely, but this was lost 46 votes to 37, and the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill then passed “on the voices.”

It is interesting that the reason for the one fewer “Yes” vote in this final session was that one of the supportive MPs, Government minister Natalie Hutchins missed the vote because she was attending her husband’s funeral and was not granted a pair.

Assisted dying choice for those who meet the rigid criteria will be accessible from mid 2019 to allow for processes and training to be implemented.

Other reports including some details on the Bill and accessing assistance, can be found here > http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/euthanasia-to-be-legal-in-victoria-from-2019-20171129-gzuxa8.html

And here > http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-29/euthanasia-passes-parliament-in-victoria/9205472

My sincere thanks to every one who has assisted, lobbied MPs, written letters, donated funds or helped in any way to make this day a reality. We can now move on to either WA or Tasmania, or perhaps South Australia, and there have even been rumblings in Queensland.

Ian Wood