Labor under pressure to allow telehealth access for euthanasia but PM says ‘it should be face-to-face’ | Labor party
Labor will come under pressure to change its national policy platform and allow Australians to access voluntary assisted dying via telehealth services; The Greens and independent Kate Chaney will introduce the legislation.
The national conference in Adelaide last week changed the ALP platform and committed Labor to overturning the Howard-era law banning people from making medical appointments for euthanasia via telehealth services.
New language added to the platform suggests Labor MPs will vote in conscience on the issue, but prime minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday the government may not progress the legislation through parliament.
The party’s platform consists of a set of policy principles, but changes are not always immediately reflected in government legislation.
While Albanese supports assisted dying, also known as voluntary euthanasia, he said he believes the telehealth shift risks undermining appropriate medical measures.
Speaking to ABC TV, Obama said, “It is important that people have the right to die with dignity.”
“But it’s also important to put guards around them. Now, if someone has a heart attack or has an acute health problem, they need a doctor. They can’t do that over telehealth.”
“I think it’s equally important for someone to end their life. I think it needs to be face-to-face recognition and face-to-face interaction. My concern is: the potential for abuse, but also the potential for undermining the system itself.”
Asked whether the federal government would move to change the law to reflect the updated national platform, Albanese said the cabinet would decide in consultation with MPs whether to draft new legislation.
“Governments determine what governments do around the cabinet table. What the conference does is to set out the general direction of what they want and it is clear that this is a matter of conscience,” he said.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young indicated on Sunday that she would quickly forward a private member’s bill on the issue, in a clear attempt to force Labour’s hand.
Curtin MP Kate Chaney had said on Friday she would move to reintroduce her private member’s bill to the lower house, which would give Labor “the earliest opportunity to end this cruel anomaly and provide country people with the same access as Australians in major cities”.
“This overdue change in Labor policy on voluntary assisted dying should mean an end to unnecessary suffering in the final stages of life, especially for those in regional areas who have to travel, sometimes repeatedly, just to access statutory medical care,” he said.
Doctors and voluntary assisted dying advocates have long called for change, arguing that the ban on telehealth negatively affects patients who live in rural and remote areas and whose conditions limit their movements or make travel painful.
Federal criminal law prohibits the use of a transportation service for the purpose of promoting or encouraging suicide; therefore, healthcare professionals run the risk of violating the law if they use telecommunications for many aspects of the VAD process.
A fine of up to $300,000 is also possible for violations of the law.
Labour’s updated national platform says the party will “remove existing barriers in federal law to the provision of end-of-life care (via telehealth) as part of legal access to voluntary assisted dying in states and territories, while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards”.
This also ensures a vote of conscience on the issue, where MPs are not bound by the government’s stance on a bill.
