Should Minors Be Able to Access Voluntary Assisted Dying?
Katrine Del Villar1, Australian Centre For Health Law Research, QUT Brisbane 1Australian Centre For Health Law Research, QUT, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Abstract
Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws in all six Australian states are restricted to adults who have a terminal illness. The ACT has recently indicated it is considering extending eligibility to minors with a terminal illness to access VAD, provided they have decision-making capacity. If enacted, the ACT would follow only Belgium, the Netherlands and Colombia in allowing minors to access VAD, although Canada is also considering extending its existing law to include ‘mature minors’.
This proposal appears to have broad community support within the ACT, but remains controversial. While it is acknowledged that young people, as well as adults, may be suffering intolerably from an incurable terminal illness, permitting young people to make the decision to end their lives requires extra care.
This presentation uses current laws in Belgium, the Netherlands and Colombia as a basis to consider what safeguards the ACT may enact if it chooses to allow minors to access VAD. Areas of focus include minimum age requirements; parental involvement or authorization; and whether extra consultations are required to confirm a young person’s capacity to choose to access VAD.
Biography
Katrine Del Villar is a lecturer in law at QUT. She researches voluntary assisted dying laws in Australia and internationally, and mental health laws. She was part of the team at QUT which prepared the mandatory training for medical practitioners on the voluntary assisted dying laws in Western Australia and Queensland.