'Very conservative': Advocates, critics react to NT's new VAD legislation

Thirty years ago, Dr Philip Nitschke helped terminal cancer patient Bob Dent to die in Darwin under the world's first voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation.

He is greatly relieved to see the Northern Territory finally follow other Australian states in again allowing VAD, after a bill legalising the practice passed in parliament on Thursday night.

"I'm relieved that this has finally happened, and it's ironic that the Northern Territory — that led the world with its first legislation in 1995 — is now the last place in Australia to bring in laws,"

he said.

"But I am also disappointed that I thought they were in a position to do something again that was quite important internationally, something more progressive, but you've got a very conservative piece of law passed."

The NT's 1995 law was short-lived because the federal government, led by then-prime minister John Howard, revoked it 1997.

Now the head of right-to-die campaign group Exit International, Dr Nitschke said he was particularly disappointed to see the bill passed this week includes a clause restricting VAD to people who are found to have less than 12 months to live by a doctor.

That restriction was not in the NT's original legislation.

"It's an impossible condition," Dr Nitschke said.

"It puts a lot of power in the hands of the doctor, not in the hands of the person who's seeking some help to die — and doctors are in an impossible position too, it's almost impossible to predict when a person's going to die from whatever disease."

Dr Nitschke said doctors already found it difficult to determine they were meeting the requirement under the 1995 law, that anyone they assisted had a terminal condition, never mind having to consider a 12-month prognosis.

"So there were problems then, and there are problems now, and they haven't been addressed," he said.

"It's a pity because the Territory could have done it, but the Territory I think has taken the easy path.

"And now the Territory and Australia are having to catch up with the changes that have swept the world.

"But I do hope the Territory still gets some acknowledgement that its first laws were of global significance, and the Territory should be really proud of what it did."

All other Australian jurisdictions have 12 or 6-month terminal prognosis limits on VAD access, except the ACT.

But the NT's new law is more restrictive than those in other states, in that it prohibits doctors initiating conversations with patients about assisted dying, under a so-called gag clause.

The only other state with that rule is South Australia.

Territorians question prognosis limit

Several NT residents are now trying to work out if they will be able to use the new VAD law.

Darwin resident Dave Collins, who has several organs riddled with incurable cancer, is among them.

However, because of the 12-month restriction, he does not think he will be able to use voluntary assisted dying.

"The option won't be there for me because I don't believe there is any doctor who will say that cancer will kill you within 12 months," he said.

"They'll say to me: 'That cancer will never be cured, but we can't say it will kill you in 12 months'."

Mr Collins said his condition was being managed with chemotherapy and medication at the moment, but he would like to have the option of using VAD.

"I certainly would if I was in pain," he said.

Darwin resident Eileen, who asked for her surname not to be used, said she was glad the NT had now legislated VAD.

Her sister was able to use Victoria's assisted dying laws to end a 17-year losing battle with pain from multiple incurable cancers, at home with family around her.

"She knew for quite a few years that that's what she wanted to do, and when the day came, I said to her, 'Are you sure you want to do it?' and she said 'Yes, I am'," Eileen said.

"After she died she just looked so peaceful, and I'm glad that she could go the way she did.

"She'd had enough, she'd fought as long as she could, but she knew when it was time to go."

Eileen said her sister told family members the week before her death, and had all kinds of special preparations made for it.

"She wanted to look beautiful, so she got two of her nieces to put makeup on her and it was just lovely that we could all be together," Eileen said.

"At first my brother and I wondered whether we would go in there with her when she was going to take the medicine, but we were so happy we did because we saw her in all the pain that she had been in and then — after five minutes — she just looked beautiful, because all the pain had gone away."

Eileen said she would "100 per cent" consider using assisted dying herself, if she needed to.

But she too expressed disappointment about the NT's 12-month terminal prognosis limit.

"Nobody really knows how long it's going to take before somebody does die, and I think that the 12 months thing is a bit ridiculous," she said.

'Takes the cause of VAD backwards': Perron

Former NT chief minister Marshall Perron, the architect of the 1995 territory law, described the new 12-month prognosis requirement as "a terrible shame".

"We now have a bill that is probably the first law passed in Australia that actually takes the cause of VAD backwards compared to what other people have done," he said.

"Whereas every other jurisdiction, as they each addressed the law, looked at what the previous predecessors had done."

Nicholas Lay, the NT director of the Australian Christian Lobby — which has spearheaded a push against the law — said his group was disappointed VAD had been legislated.

"It's deeply disappointing that not one MLA voted against the most controversial and contentious bill in recent years, a bill that legalises the intentional ending of human life," he said.

Territorians will be able to start using VAD when the new law comes into effect in 18 months, and the NT government has promised the legislation will be reviewed in three years.

Dr Nitschke hopes those subsequent check-ins will lead to some of the NT's restrictions being removed, as has happened following reviews in other states including Victoria.

"There are other global models like Switzerland we can look at where this is seen as a human right, where the patient makes the decision and it's not up to someone else, if and when to end your life,"