Ms Casey Haining1
1Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University Of Technology
Following the passing of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 (WA) in December 2019, Western Australia became the second Australian jurisdiction to pass voluntary assisted dying laws. The law came into effect in July 2021, following an eighteen-month implementation period.
This presentation reports on the findings of a pilot qualitative study that aimed to understand how the Western Australia voluntary assisted dying regime was operating in practice during the early stages of its operation. This study forms part of a four-year Australian Research Council Future Fellowship study on the optimal regulation of voluntary assisted dying.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several stakeholders including patients, families, health practitioners and regulators (n=TBC) to gain insight into their experiences with the voluntary assisted dying regime in Western Australia during its early phases. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.
This presentation will provide an overview of the key themes arising from the data analysis (exact themes TBC once final interviews have been completed and analysed), specifically focusing on some of the key strengths and limitations of the Western Australian regime as identified by the study’s participants.
Biography:
Casey Haining is a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology. She has qualifications in biomedicine, population health and law. Casey also has an appointment at the University of Melbourne.