Expand voluntary assisted dying to dementia sufferers, advocates urge

Voluntary assisted dying advocates recently met with Premier Roger Cook to urge him to consider amending the law to expand access for the terminally ill, including dementia sufferers. Steve Walker, president of Dying With Dignity WA and the association’s patron Janet Holmes a Court, requested he examine improvements to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act. “We‘ve asked for a commitment that, if re elected, the Government will set up a new joint select committee, like the one that was set up in 2017, to assess the adequacy of our Act, especially with regard to changes or developments in other States and overseas since our Act was passed,” he said. Dying With Dignity believes the time to death requirement should be removed and dementia sufferers should not be completely excluded from voluntary assisted dying. WA’s eligibility criteria requires that the person’s disease, illness or medical condition will, on the balance of probabilities, cause death within a period of six months or in the case of a disease, illness or medical condition that is neurodegenerative, within a period of 12 months “The ACT have passed their law without that time to death requirement,” Mr Walker said. “We admit (that including dementia patients) is not simple and it’s not easy, but Quebec (in Canada) has actually passed (such) amendments to their laws. We say you can do it here.” Mr Walker said Mr Cook and premier Mark McGowan before him had previously acknowledged that despite its complexity, it was a matter that needed to be discussed. The group had low expectations for a review of the Act due to be tabled in Parliament later this year. Mr Walker said the terms of reference precluded any discussion of changes to the eligibility criteria. “The review has been an enormous disappointment,” he said.