Australia's Northern Territory legalizes assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Australia's Northern Territory

I have sad news.

Australia's Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize assisted suicide between 1996 - 97, and once again has legalized assisted suicide.

Joseph Hathaway-Wilson reported for ABC News Australia on August 27 that:

The Northern Territory Parliament has passed a bill legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in the NT, with significant restrictions on accessing, and initiating conversations about, the practice.

The NT is now both the first and last Australian jurisdiction to legislate for VAD after a watershed 1995 law was overturned by the Commonwealth two years later.

Hathaway-Wilson reported that no one will be allowed to bring up the issue of assisted suicide and a person will need a 12 month terminal prognosis to be approved.

The Northern Territory passed the first assisted suicide law on May 25, 1995. Australia's Federal government passed An Act Concerning Euthanasia on March 24, 1997 which overturned the Northern Territories euthanasia law.

Dr Philip Nitschke, who became an international euthanasia activist, began by lobbying to legalize assisted suicide in the Northern Territory under the banner of Doctors for change. Nitschke started his killing career in the Northern Territory and was involved with 4 assisted deaths, while it was legal. When the Northern Territory law was overturned in 1997 Nitschke continued to promote assisted suicide and founded the group Exit International, that still exists today.

Nitschke will bring suicide pod to Britain if assisted suicide is legalized.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Philip Nitschke, also known as Dr Death, who invented a suicide pod, stated in an interview, last year, that the suicide pod will be ready for use in Britain if assisted suicide is legalized.

Sanchez Manning reported for the Times on June 20, 2025 that:

Nitschke, who invented the pod, which uses gas to assist death, said: “As soon as we know that the final legislation is in place we’ll start enthusiastically pursuing the option of using the device in the UK.

“We’ll be looking to find UK-registered doctors to assist and of course someone who wants to use it and satisfies all of the requirements under the law.”

In September 2024, long-time euthanasia activist, Philip Nitschke, carried out the first assisted suicide Sarco suicide pod death in Switzerland.

The suicide pod is promoted as an easy and pain free death. The pod is designed in a sleek manner to make it seem like a fashionable way to die. The pod causes death by releasing Nitrogen gas resulting in death within several minutes.

The UK House of Commons will once again debate the Kim Leadbeater assisted suicide bill which passed, by a vote of 330 to 275 on November 29, 2024 at second reading, in the UK House of Commons but died on the order paper in the House of Lords earlier this year.

The House of Lords debated multiple amendments to the flawed Leadbeater bill. The debate in the House of Lords (timed-out) before they voted on the bill.

Lauren Edwards, (Labour MP) for Rochester and Strood, had reintroduced the Leadbeater bill, that is scheduled to have it's first vote on September 11, 2026. The Edwards bill is nearly identical to the Leadbeater bill and therefore may not be required to be debated in the House of Lords, if it passes at final reading in the UK House of Commons based on the rule that if a nearly identical bill passes twice in consecutive parliaments, then it is not required to be debated in the House of Lords.

More recently Nitschke has been promoting the KK suicide "collar" which, when activated, will essentially strangle the person to death.

Nitschke has become a notorious and wealthy promoter of suicide through the sale of his books and devices. He has become famous with the creation of his "suicide pod" that is designed to gain media attention.

Nitshcke is known for his support for suicide on demand. He once told a reporter that even troubled teens should have access to the "peaceful pill".

Nitshke is not an "outsider" in the euthanasia movement. He has been a leader and world-wide euthanasia activist since the mid 1990's when he became the first doctor to legally kill patients in Australia's northern territory that had legalized euthanasia in 1995 but the law was overturned in 1997.

The sad news is that Australia's Northern Territory once again legalized euthanasia on August 27, 2026. 

Australian ALS Patient Denied Disability Support "Chooses" Euthanasia

This article was published by National Review online on January 19, 2026.

By Wesley J Smith

I really do try to write about other issues. But the awfulness keeps on coming.

Yesterday, I called attention to the Canadian bioethicist who claimed that lethal jabs are no different than hip replacements. Today, I came across an awful story out of Australia in which Tony Lewis, age 71 and experiencing Motor Neurone Disease — what we call ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease — has asked for euthanasia because he was denied sufficient financial support for his disability. From the Hello Care report:

A Queensland man with Motor Neurone Disease has chosen to access voluntary assisted dying after being denied support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme because of his age, reigniting concerns about Australia’s two-tier approach to disability and aged care.

Tony Lewis is 71. Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year, he falls outside the eligibility criteria for the NDIS, which excludes people diagnosed after the age of 65. Instead, he must rely on the aged care system, where funding levels and response times are widely acknowledged as inadequate for fast progressing neurological conditions.

Lewis wants to go on living but believes his financial situation makes that impossible.

Mr Lewis currently receives funding that covers only a small number of basic services each week. The reality of his care needs far exceeds what is funded. Most of his daily support is provided by his wife, Gill, who has a nursing background and has taken on the role of primary carer…

Faced with the prospect of further decline without adequate support, Mr Lewis has chosen to begin the voluntary assisted dying process. He has been clear that the decision is not driven by a lack of will to live, but by the absence of appropriate care options that would allow him to remain at home with dignity.

Yeah, just like a hip replacement! This same kind of abandonment has happened in Canada, too. But euthanasia? Never a problem of access! Is it any wonder that disability rights activists oppose hastened death?

We keep hearing the magic word, “choice,” in this debate. Sometimes that word has as much meaning as it does for cattle being herded into slaughterhouse chutes.

 

MAiD will always be abused. Death down under.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kelsi Sheren recorded a podcast on November 11 titled: MAiD will always be abused - Death down under (Video below).

In her podcast Sheren explains the story of the Queensland Australia Police who charged euthanasia actvists Ian George Taylor, Brett Daniel Taylor and Elaine Arch-Rowe with aiding suicide in the deaths of at least two people and they are being investigated in over three Australian states in at least 20 deaths.

The activists were using veterinarian euthanasia drugs to kill people. The veterinarian euthanasia drugs were obtained through a fake charity. People were charged at least $1,200 for each assisted death. The business was called End of Life Services.

For those who may be thinking that this service was "necessary" because assisted suicide is illegal in Australia, well think again. Assisted suicide is legal in every Australian state.

Doctor speaks out on initiating requests for MAiD (euthanasia).

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Victoria Australia legislature will be voting on a bill to expand their euthanasia law. Nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide has expanded their law. The original legislation, in Victoria, included several "safeguards" including the requirement that only patients could initiate a request for euthanasia.

Dr. Ramona Coelho, is a Family Physician in Ontario; a Senior Fellow of Domestic and Health Policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a Member of Medical Assistance in Dying Ontario (MAiD) Death Review Committee (MDRC). 

Dr Coehlo responds to doctors initiating requests for euthanasia:

I had a patient whose mother was offered medical assistance in dying, like many times, and they took her home because they didn't feel comfortable being in the hospital. Even after she died naturally the MAiD team apparently called the house to see if she had changed her mind.

I have been contacted by people who are concerned about family members who have been offered medical assistance in dying every day during the hospitalization in a way that it seem like they were just checking up on them.

Article: Canadian doctors speak out against initiating requests for euthanasia (Link).

Victoria Australia Assisted Dying Expansion Bill

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Victoria Australia, like Canada, currently permits both euthanasia and assisted suicide. Therefore, the Victoria law already permits doctors to kill their patients by lethal injection or by prescribing the same lethal poison cocktail that the person would self-administer.

When Victoria Australia debated euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2017, in order to get support for the bill, they agreed to several "safeguards" including a 6 month terminal illness prognosis, which is similar to most US assisted suicide laws, and the requirement that doctors cannot initiate the discussion around euthanasia.

Similar to Canada where euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalized in 2016 under the term (MAiD), the provisions of the law were expanded in 2021 by eliminating the "terminal illness" requirement, eliminating the 10-day waiting period and permitting euthanasia for mental illness as the sole criteria, a provision that the Canadian government has delayed until March 17, 2027.

Every jurisdiction, that is currently debating euthanasia or assisted suicide, need to realize that nearly every jurisdiction that have legalized these acts, within a few short years, have expanded their laws.

How does the Victoria Assisted Dying Amendment Bill expand the law?:

• Currently doctors are not able to ask a patient if they want an assisted death, only patients can initiate the conversation. This bill enables doctors to initiate the question of an assisted death.
• Currently health practitioners who have a conscientiously objection don't need to refer or provide information, this bill requires them to refer or provide information to patients.
• Currently a person qualifies for an assisted death if they have a terminal prognosis of less than six months, this bill expands approval to people with a terminal prognosis of 12 months for all conditions.
• Currently a third medical assessment is required for neurodegenerative patients, this bill will reduce it to two medical assessments.
• Currently the two requests for an assisted death must be at least 9 days apart, the bill will reduce the second request to at least 5 days from the first request.
• Currently a person must be a citizen or permanent resident to be approved for an assisted death, this bill will not require the person to be a citizen or permanent resident but to have lived in Australia for at least 3 years.
• Currently a person must be a resident of the state of Victoria, this bill adds a "compassion" exemption to people who live in New South Wales or South Australia. This is a funny change since both New South Wales and South Australia permit euthanasia.
• This bill changes practitioner eligibility to make it easier for qualified doctors to participate.
• This bill simplies the permit to participate and creates a new administrative practitioner role to enable medical professionals who are not doctors to participate in the act.
• This bill allows interpreter flexibility when accredited ones are unavailable. In other words, the stringent requirement that someone fully understands the nature of the act has been weakened.

So let's be clear, Victoria Australia's euthanasia and assisted suicide law came into effect in June 2019.

The expansion bill changes the law by not requiring a person to be terminally ill but rather to have a terminal condition. People with a terminal condition and have a "12 month prognosis" are not dying and with treatment may recover or live a much longer life. Doctors cannot effectively determine a 12 month prognosis.

The expansion bill allows medical professionals to sell death. In Canada, MAiD teams approach peopl who have not offered any interest in being killed, but because of their medical condition, they are being harrassed into considering MAiD.

The expansion bill enables medical professionals who are not doctors to participate in the act. The same expansion is happenig in other jurisdictions based on the fact that very few doctors are willing to be killers, so they expand the catagory of who can be a killer.

In nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized euthanasia and/or assisted suicide, soon after, expand their law. Expansions are either done legislatively, as in Victoria Australia, or through interpretation of the law or both.

If your jurisdiction is debating euthanasia and assisted suicide, don't accept the arguement that the bill will not expand, if legalized. The language of the legislation to legalize these acts is determined by what it will take to legalize, not by what they intend, in the long term. Victoria Australia is a prime example since it tightened its original bill, to legalize the acts, and is, a few short years later, expanding the legislation, to enable more killing.

Assisted-Suicide Slippery Slope Keeps Slip-Sliding Away

This article was published by the National Review online on October 22, 2025.

By Wesley J Smith

When assisted suicide is first proposed for legalization, we are assured by death activists that strict guidelines will protect against abuse. But they don’t mean it. Once the laws pass, the supposed protections — which are always flaccid to begin with — are soon redefined by activists and the media as “barriers,” et voila, the laws are soon loosened. It’s all a con, but people seem to fall for it every time.

This pattern can be seen vividly playing out in Victoria, Australia. The state was the first in that country to legalize assisted suicide, and now the government is making more people eligible for legally hastened death. From the premier’s announcement:

The new legislation will remove unnecessary barriers to accessing VAD, improve clarity for practitioners, strengthen safety measures and make the system fairer and more compassionate.

See what I mean? “Strengthen safety,” (!!!) and “fairer and more compassionate,” really just means more people can become dead much sooner.

Here are some of the particulars:

There are 13 proposed amendments to the legislation, with proposed key changes to include:

• Removing the ‘gag clause’ so that registered health practitioners are allowed to raise VAD with their patients during discussion about end of life options

Doctors bringing up assisted suicide. Can you imagine anything more destructive of hope?

• Requiring registered health practitioners who conscientiously object to provide minimum information.

Doctors are often promised they can opt out. But then, the attacks on medical conscience begin.

• Extending the prognosis requirement (life expectancy limit for eligibility) from six months to 12 months.

Doctors often can’t accurately know who will die within six months. Having a one-year window just opens the door to more people to kill themselves who might not have died of their condition at all.

• For people with neurodegenerative diseases (like motor neurone disease), they’ll no longer need a third prognosis if their expected lifespan is between six and 12 months.

The second and third opinions are often provided by doctors recommended by euthanasia organizations.

• Introducing a new administering practitioner role to expand the workforce able to support VAD.

I suspect this means nurse practitioners will be able to participate in hastened death — as is allowed in other jurisdictions, including some here in the U.S. — because there can never be enough assisted suicide.

The premier excuses his loosening of eligibility requirements and other aspects of the law by claiming the changes are necessary to catch up with the slacker assisted-suicide laws in other Australian states. Talk about a race to the bottom!

The ultimate destination for all of this will be the creation of a fundamental right to be made dead, regardless of the reason, i.e., death on demand. Indeed, German and Estonian courts have already created a fundamental right to commit suicide and receive assistance in that act for whatever reason, or, for that matter, no reason at all.

In this, I am reminded of the Paul Simon lyrics:

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away.

Links to previous articles about Victoria Australia's euthanasia law (Articles Link).

Queensland Australia: Huge increases in assisted deaths.

The Australian Care Alliance updated it's euthanasia fact page on the state of Queensland after the release of the recent report indicating that there were 1072 assisted deaths in Queensland from July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 which was up from 793 over the previous year. 

Euthanasia and assistance to suicide became legal in Queensland from 1 January 2023 under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021.

Numbers

A report on the first six months of legalisation stated that there were 245 deaths under the Act - 139 deaths (56.73%) by “practitioner administration”, that is euthanasia and 106 by “self-administration”, that is assisted suicide. This represented about 1.32% of all deaths - higher than WA after one year and twice Victoria's rate after 4 years.

A second report, covering 1 July 2023-30 June 2024 stated that there were 793 deaths under the Act - 532 deaths (67%) by “practitioner administration”, that is euthanasia and 261 (33%) by “self-administration”, that is assisted suicide. This represented about 2.05 % of all deaths in 2023-24 – a 45% increase on the rate for the first six months of operation.

The 2024-25 annual report reported a total of 1072 deaths under the Act with 779 (72.67%) by euthanasia and 293 (27.33%) by assistance to suicide. This represents 2.84% of all deaths – an increase of 38.5% on the 2023-24 rate.

Queensland also produces quarterly reports which show a continued steady increase in the rate of euthanasia and assistance to suicide.

The quarterly report covering 1 July 2024-30 September 2024 stated that there were 241 deaths under the Act – representing 2.34% of all deaths in Queensland in that period, a 26% increase on the rate for 2023-24.

There were a further 264 deaths from 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024 – 2.69% of all deaths; a further 273 between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025 (2.82% of all deaths), with 75% of these deaths by euthanasia and 25% by self-administration; and a further 288 deaths between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2025.

So by April-June 2025 - just two and a half years after commencement - some 35 of all deaths in Queensland were by euthanasia and assistance to suicide.

One relevant factor in this higher rate compared to other Australian states could be that the eligibility criteria in Queensland include a prognosis that the condition is " expected to cause death within 12 months" whereas it is six months (except for neuro-degenerative conditions) in the other states.

Practitioners

Registered nurses are allowed to administer the prescribed lethal substance to cause a person’s death. 218 registered nurses have done the training (compared to 226 medical practitioners and 26 nurse practitioners).

35 nurses and nurse practitioners administered a lethal substance to a person in 2024-25, compared with 51 medical practitioners. Of these 86 State trained professional killers, 39 were serial killers in 2024-25, killing five or more people each.

Of the 121 practitioners involved in 2024-25 as coordinating or consulting practitioners 50 of them were involved in 21 or more cases (that is an average of at least one case every 17 days).

Prognosis

Unlike other United States and Australian jurisdictions which limit assisted suicide (and, in Australian jurisdictions, euthanasia) to those with a prognosis of 6 months or less to expected death, the Queensland law allows access to those with a prognosis of expected death within 12 months.

This increases the likelihood of wrongful deaths from errors in prognosis.

Refusing treatment and symptom management

The Queensland Government explicitly states that those seeking euthanasia or assistance to suicide may meet the eligibility criteria of a terminal illness that is causing suffering by refusing medical treatment and symptom management.

This makes it clear that this regime is about facilitating the intentional ending of life and not about relieving unavoidable suffering at the end of life. Under these provisions people with otherwise non-terminal conditions such as a young person with insulin dependent diabetes could be euthanased.

Timeframe

The law generally requires a nine-day period between a first and final request but this can be waived if two medical practitioners agree the person may die or lose decision-making capacity within that period.

In 2023-24, 275 people had the nine-day waiting period waived. This is 34.7 % of those who died under the Act.

Where a person is assessed as likely to imminently losing decision-making capacity there must be a real doubt as to the person ‘s current decision-making capacity so this provision increases the likelihood of wrongful deaths from lack of decision-making capacity.

Government facilitation of suicide and euthanasia

The Queensland Government has established Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Support Service which will only provide information and assistance on suicide and euthanasia and will not provide any assistance or information on “any other health concerns, including your underlying conditions”.

The QVAD-Support service will directly link a person seeking to end their life with a medical practitioner willing to help them do so.

Any registered health practitioner who has a conscientious objection to facilitating the suicide of or euthanasing his or her patients must if asked by any person for such assistance or information give the person either the details of QVAD-Support Service or of a registered health practitioner willing to facilitate the person’s death.

The Queensland voluntary assisted dying pharmacy is funded to supply the lethal poisons for suicide to individuals and for euthanasia to administering medical practitioners or nurses.

Reporting

Clause 8 of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Regulations 2022 requires the Voluntary Assisted dying Board to collect some minimal information that is then required to be published in an annual report to be provided by 30 September each year.

This includes basic demographic data (age, sex and region) of applicants and data on the underlying condition as well as the number of deaths from self-administration or practitioner administration of lethal poisons prescribed under the Act.

The time between first and final request is to be reported.

No data on referrals for additional assessments of eligibility or decision-making capacity is to be collected. Nor is there any provision for reporting on complications, the time between administration of the poison and loss of consciousness, or the time between administration of the poison and death.

Given the general complication rate of 7% or higher reported from other jurisdictions this is a concerning lack of transparency that undermines any future claim that there are no problems with the practice of assistance to suicide and euthanasia in Queensland. We will never know.

No safe space

The Act imposes on all hospitals, nursing homes and residential aged care facilities in Queensland the obligation to allow suicide and euthanasia by lethal poison on their premises for any permanent resident of the facility and for any other resident where a “deciding medical practitioner” determines transferring the person for this purpose is not “reasonable”.

This is a violation of the human rights of freedom of association, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

The sick and elderly should be able to choose to be treated or to live in a place where no-one is intentionally killed or helped to commit suicide.

Lethal substances at large

One of the obvious risks of prescribing and supplying lethal substances to be kept in the community is that the lethal substance may be ingested by a person other than the person for whom it is prescribed.

The Queensland coroner is reportedly investigating an incident, in which after a woman was prescribed lethal drugs under the Act but died in hospital before ingesting the drugs, her husband subsequently used the drugs to kill himself.

The report of the Australian Care Alliance can be found here (Link)

Australian euthanasia activists arrested for assisted suicide death trafficking.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Luca Ittimani reported for the Guardian on September 15 that Australian Police charged Ian George Taylor, Brett Daniel Taylor and Elaine Arch-Rowe with aiding suicide in the deaths of at least two people and are being investigated over three Australian states in at least 20 deaths.

Even though Australian states have legalized assisted suicide, Taylor allegedly set-up a fake charity to obtain drugs that are used to euthanize animals for the purpose of aiding the suicides, for profit.

Ian George Taylor

Rex Martinich reported for AAP news on September 21 that:

Ian George Taylor, of Ashmore, on Friday faced Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland's Gold Coast charged with once count each of possessing and trafficking drugs.

Police allege Taylor, aged 80, trafficked animal euthanasia drugs on April 5, less than a week before his son, Brett Daniel Taylor, 53, allegedly helped a quadriplegic man to take his own life.

Brett Daniel Taylor

Martinich further reported that:

The Taylors and Southport woman Elaine Arch-Rowe, 81, were charged on September 15 following an investigation into the death of 43-year-old David Llewellyn Bedford at Hope Island on April 11.

Taylor is also accused of trafficking drugs in September when his son and Arch-Rowe allegedly attempted to aid an undercover police operative to kill themselves.

Elaine Arch-Rowe

An article by Greg Stolz that was published by the Courier Mail states that:

An undercover operative posing as a suicide candidate helped bust open a $12,000-per-dose euthanasia drug ring operating on the Gold Coast.

An ABC news Australia article by Alexandria Utting stated that:

Mr Taylor operated a business called End of Life Services, which according to its website helped to "plan and administer a loved [one's] passing", including preparing wills and enduring power of attorney documents.

Utting also reported that Elaine Arch-Rowe, 81, who was also charged:

She was formerly a coordinator of the Gold Coast chapter of Exit International, a euthanasia advocacy organisation.

Exit International is the group that is founded and operated by Philip Nitschke, the man who has been promoting the Sarco suicide machine.

Utting reported that Taylor had plans to grow his killing business:

In the documents, police alleged Mr Taylor told Ms Arch-Row in intercepted telephone calls that he would be the largest supplier of pentobarbital in Australia within 12 months.

Police alleged Mr Taylor also compared the selling of pentobarbital for assisted suicide to a "drug cartel" and planned to move the business overseas once he had made enough money.

Several articles suggested that Taylor and Arch-Rowe identified potential death clients by working with other euthanasia and assisted suicide organizations.

This case shows you the inter-connections between euthanasia organizations and activists on a world-wide basis. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will continue following this story.

Australian police lay charges in assisted suicide deaths. Investigating 20 more.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Det. Mark Mooney, Queensland Police

Luca Ittimani reported for the Guardian on September 15 that Australian Police have charged Brett Daniel Taylor with two counts of aiding suicide and is being investigated over three Australian states in at least 20 deaths. 

Even though every Australian state has legalized assisted suicide, Taylor allegedly set-up a fake charity to obtain drugs that are used to euthanize animals. Ittimani reports:

Police have uncovered an alleged “end of life” business believed to be linked to as many as 20 deaths, with investigations across three states after a man died from a veterinary euthanasia drug.

Queensland police have charged a Gold Coast man alleged to have operated the business, Brett Daniel Taylor, with two counts of aiding suicide and several drug offences including trafficking dangerous drugs.

“The alleged conduct involves deliberately targeting vulnerable people and exploiting them in their most desperate moments,” said Det Insp Mark Mooney.

Taylor, 53, was not a vet, instead allegedly securing access to the drugs through a “front” charity set up to euthanise whales, which police claim has never carried out any lawful business.

Police stated that they are investigating back to 2021 possible cases.

The police need to investigate further back than 2021. There have been incidents of euthanasia drugs being stolen from Australian veterinarians. 

In May 2014 I reported that veterinary euthanasia drugs were stolen from the home of a semi-retired veterinarian in Victoria Australia. This was not the first incident of euthanasia drugs being stolen from a veterinarian.

Philip Nitschke has also promoted the use of veterinary euthanasia drugs for years. In March 2010 I published an article on how Nitschke encourages people to purchase veterinary euthanasia drugs online. The same article commented on a report from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine that researched 51 people who died from Nembutal in Australia. The report found that young people and depressed people were more likely to die by Nembutal than terminally ill people.

Police should also not assume that these alleged deaths were assisted suicide. They could also be euthanasia.

Ittimani reports on Taylor's alleged business model:

Police said they were investigating deaths dating back to 2021 and expected the business had allegedly played a role in 20 or more deaths, including some outside Queensland’s south-east.

The business’s services allegedly included helping people die in their own homes, providing them “suicide kits,” arranging wills and finding people after their death, Mooney said.

Police believe that Taylor was motivated by a profitable business model. Ittimani reports:

The business allegedly resold the drug for “significantly more” than its wholesale price, Mooney said.

“We will allege he hasn’t acted compassionately at all. This is a business transaction for him … just for pure money.”

Ittimani reported that the investigation began after an autopsy of a 43 year old man.

Police began investigating after the death of a 43-year-old man at his home on the Gold Coast in April, which a postmortem found had been caused by the veterinary drug.

“He had suffered from medical conditions for a long period of time but his medical conditions did not meet the voluntary assisted dying laws of Queensland,” Mooney said.

The case is further complicated by the alleged involvement of Taylor's family.

Taylor’s 80-year-old father and another woman, aged 81, are alleged to have helped the business’s operations and both face charges related to drug trafficking. The woman, who also faces a charge of aiding suicide, was unrelated to Taylor or his father.

Police are seeking help from anyone or has connections to End of Life Services.

Victoria Australia debates expansions to it's euthanasia law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Victoria Australia is considering legislation to expand their euthanasia law. Victoria was the first Australian state to legalize euthanasia in June 2019.

When Victoria was debating euthanasia, in order to get the bill passed, they agreed to a bill with several "safeguards" including a 6 month terminal illness prognosis and the requirement that doctors cannot initiate the discussion around euthanasia.

Similar to nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide Victoria is now considering expanding their euthanasia law to include a 12 month terminal illness prognosis, a reduction in the waiting period and allowing physicians to introduce the topic of euthanasia.

Callum Godde and Holly Hales reported for AAP news that:

A ban on Victorian health practitioners raising voluntary assisted dying (VAD) with terminally ill patients would be lifted under legislation set to be introduced to state parliament in 2025.

The government also wants to mandate practitioners' providing a bare minimum of information to patients if asked about the end-of-life process, even if they object.

Under the reforms, the life expectancy barrier for eligibility would be extended from six to 12 months for all patients, a third assessment requirement for neurodegenerative patients removed and the time between first and final VAD requests shortened from nine to five days.

A requirement would be added for people to be an Australian permanent resident for at least three years and an exemption for those who haven't lived in Victoria for 12 months to get access if they have a "substantial connection" to the state.

According to Godde and Hales, the Green Party believes that the proposal doesn't go far enough. The Green Party wants to eliminate the requirement of a terminal prognosis.

The Australian Care Alliance reports that as of June 30, 2024 there have been at least 1282 people who have died by euthanasia in Victoria Australia. Victoria Australia allows euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Register for our EPC zoom event: Australia's experience with euthanasia on Tuesday January 21.

Join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Australian Care Alliance for a live Zoom presentation on Tuesday January 21 at 3 pm (Eastern Time).

Register for the Zoom presentation. (Registration Link).

Canada legalized euthanasia by amending the federal criminal code to create a national exception to homicide (murder).

Australia is similar to the United States whereby states that legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide do so by amending state laws. Therefore every Australian state has a different law.

Richard Egan with the Australian Care Alliance will join Alex Schadenberg to provide an update concerning what is happening with euthanasia and assisted suicide in Australia.

The Australian laws require scrutiny now that Britain is debating the legalization of assisted suicide. 

British politicians who support assisted suicide have become interested in Australia's experience since Canada's euthanasia (MAiD) law has become toxic based on the many negative stories and reports.

Register for the Zoom presentation. (Registration Link). Once you register, a confirmation email will be sent to you.

Queensland euthanasia report indicates another 26% increase in deaths.

This report was published by the Australian Care Alliance.

Euthanasia and assistance to suicide became legal in Queensland on 1 January 2023 under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021.

Numbers

A report on the first six months of legalisation states that there were 245 deaths under the Act - 139 deaths (56.73%) by “practitioner administration”, that is euthanasia and 106 by “self-administration”, that is assisted suicide.

245 deaths in six months represents about 1.31% of all deaths - higher than WA after one year and twice Victoria's rate after 4 years.

A second report, covering 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024 states that there were 793 deaths under the Act - 532 deaths (67%) by “practitioner administration”, that is euthanasia and 261 (33%) by “self-administration”, that is assisted suicide.

This represents about 1.9% of all deaths in 2023/24 – a 45% increase on the rate for the first six months of operation.

A quarterly report covering 1 July 2024 - 30 September 2024 states that there were 241 deaths under the Act – representing 2.4% of all deaths in Queensland in that period, a further 26% increase on the rate for 2023-24. 

One relevant factor in this higher rate compared to other Australian states could be that the eligibility criteria in Queensland include a prognosis that the condition is " expected to cause death within 12 months" whereas it is six months (except for neuro-degenerative conditions) in the other states.

Practitioners

Registered nurses are allowed to administer the prescribed lethal substance to cause a person’s death. 172 registered nurses have done the training (compared to 187 medical practitioners and 22 nurse practitioners).

Of the 120 practitioners involved in 2023-24 as coordinating or consulting practitioners 47 of them were involved in 21 or more cases (that is on average at least one case every 17 days).

20 nurses and nurse practitioners administered a lethal substance to a person in 2023-24, compared with 51 medical practitioners.

Of these 71 State trained professional killers, 28 are serial killers, having killed five or more people each in 2023-24.

Prognosis

Unlike other United States and Australian jurisdictions which limit assisted suicide (and, in Australian jurisdictions, euthanasia) to those with a prognosis of 6 months or less to expected death, the Queensland law allows access to those with a prognosis of expected death within 12 months.

This increases the likelihood of wrongful deaths from errors in prognosis.

Refusing treatment and symptom management

The Queensland Government explicitly states that those seeking euthanasia or assistance to suicide may meet the eligibility criteria of a terminal illness that is causing suffering by refusing medical treatment and symptom management.

This makes it clear that this regime is about facilitating the intentional ending of life and not about relieving unavoidable suffering at the end of life. Under these provisions people with otherwise non-terminal conditions such as a young person with insulin dependent diabetes could be euthanased.

Timeframe

The law generally requires a nine-day period between a first and final request but this can be waived if two medical practitioners agree the person may die or lose decision-making capacity within that period.

In 2023-24, 275 people had the nine-day waiting period waived. This is 34.7 % of those who died under the Act.

Where a person is assessed as likely to imminently losing decision-making capacity there must be a real doubt as to the person ‘s current decision-making capacity so this provision increases the likelihood of wrongful deaths from lack of decision-making capacity.

Government facilitation of suicide and euthanasia

The Queensland Government has established Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Support Service which will only provide information and assistance on suicide and euthanasia and will not provide any assistance or information on “any other health concerns, including your underlying conditions”.

The QVAD-Support service will directly link a person seeking to end their life with a medical practitioner willing to help them do so.

Any registered health practitioner who has a conscientious objection to facilitating the suicide of or euthanasing his or her patients must if asked by any person for such assistance or information give the person either the details of QVAD-Support Service or of a registered health practitioner willing to facilitate the person’s death.

The Queensland voluntary assisted dying pharmacy is funded to supply the lethal poisons for suicide to individuals and for euthanasia to administering medical practitioners or nurses.

Reporting

Clause 8 of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Regulations 2022 requires the Voluntary Assisted dying Board to collect some minimal information that is then required to be published in an annual report to be provided by 30 September each year.

This includes basic demographic data (age, sex and region) of applicants and data on the underlying condition as well as the number of deaths from self-administration or practitioner administration of lethal poisons prescribed under the Act.

The time between first and final request is to be reported.

No data on referrals for additional assessments of eligibility or decision-making capacity is to be collected. Nor is there any provision for reporting on complications, the time between administration of the poison and loss of consciousness, or the time between administration of the poison and death.

Given the general complication rate of 7% or higher reported from other jurisdictions this is a concerning lack of transparency that undermines any future claim that there are no problems with the practice of assistance to suicide and euthanasia in Queensland. We will never know.

No safe space

The Act imposes on all hospitals, nursing homes and residential aged care facilities in Queensland the obligation to allow suicide and euthanasia by lethal poison on their premises for any permanent resident of the facility and for any other resident where a “deciding medical practitioner” determines transferring the person for this purpose is not “reasonable”.

This is a violation of the human rights of freedom of association, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

The sick and elderly should be able to choose to be treated or to live in a place where no-one is intentionally killed or helped to commit suicide.

Lethal substances at large

One of the obvious risks of prescribing and supplying lethal substances to be kept in the community is that the lethal substance may be ingested by a person other than the person for whom it is prescribed.

The Queensland coroner investigated an incident, in which after a woman was prescribed lethal drugs under the Act but died in hospital before ingesting the drugs, her husband subsequently used the drugs to kill himself.

More articles about the Queensland experience with euthanasia.

• Coroner's report after man dies by taking his wife's assisted suicide drugs (Link). 
• Coroner examines case of Australian man who died after taking her assisted suicide drugs (Link).
• Man dies after taking wife's assisted suicide drugs (Link).

Australian Coroner's report after man dies from his wife's assisted suicide drugs.

Man died ingesting his wife's lethal assisted suicide drugs.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Julius Dennis reported for ABC News Australia that:

A coroner has found Queensland's voluntary assisted dying laws are not "well-considered" after an elderly man took his own life using drugs prescribed for his partner.

Coroner David O'Connell has recommended a health professional be present every time a deadly substance is administered.

Dennis reported that Coroner O'Connell criticized the assisted suicide law after a man died taking the assisted suicide poison that was prescribed for his wife. The news article states that the man's wife was approved for assisted suicide and had received the lethal poison but on May 8 she went to the hospital where she passed away before taking the lethal substance. Her husband was required to return the medication within 14 days but he died on May 16 after ingesting it.

Dennis reported the findings by Coroner O'Connell:

Mr O'Connell said the inquest established a person underwent fewer identity checks to become a contact person than he did entering a Brisbane nightclub.

"The fact that ABC had been medically diagnosed with depression and took medication was not something the VAD authorities considered, or even enquired on, when approving them to be a Contact Person. Indeed, there are simply no checks or enquiries of the Contact Person's suitability," he said.

O'Connell found further problems with the law. Dennis reported:

Mr O'Connell said the inquest heard evidence of "a number of 'near misses' … where various people have required the intervention of a health practitioner administer a supplementary IV VAD dosage to ensure a patient's death".

This included one patient who had alcohol before taking the drug and threw up some of the substance.

O'Connell concluded that there should always be a health professional present when a person takes lethal assisted suicide drugs.

Dennis concluded the article by stating:

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the government would consider the coroner's recommendations.

The better response is to prohibit assisted suicide. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has always warned that these laws lack effective oversight. Once a person has received the lethal poison, anyone could die taking it. Also, what happens to the lethal poison when a person dies without ingesting the lethal poison?

I wonder how often this same scenario has happened in the US? Not one of the American assisted suicide laws require oversight of the law. 

Coroner examines case of Australia man who died after taking his wife's assisted suicide drugs

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A Coroner in Brisbane Australia has opened an inquest into the death of a man who died after taking the assisted suicide drugs that were prescribed to the man's wife.

An ABC News report by Rachel Riga published on September 25, 2023 stated:

The ABC understands the man's wife had met the criteria and had been given the medication but she was admitted to hospital.

She passed away in hospital before taking the VAD substance.

Her husband was required to return the medication within 14 days but consumed it instead.

A recent article by Rex Martinich and published by AAP news Australia stated:

The Coroners Court in Brisbane today opened the inquest into the May 2023 death of a man aged in his 80s referred to by the pseudonym ABC.

ABC's name and those of his family members along with many other details surrounding his death cannot be published for legal reasons.

The substance involved in ABC's death was obtained legally after Queensland allowed voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in January 2023.

Under that law, a person can self-administer a VAD substance in a private location but they must nominate a person who will be legally required to return any unused or leftover portion within 14 days.

Coroner David O'Connell heard ABC kept the VAD substance in his home after it was no longer required for another person.

The issue of the State regulations was discussed:

O'Connell said he was concerned regulations around self-administering VAD could allow other people without a terminal illness to be physically harmed or suffer mental distress.

 

"We've got medication safety and patient autonomy; we've got to find where the pendulum swings to get the balance right," he said.

 

The nurse said VAD substances in a hospital were kept in a locked cabinet that required two keys to access but were not monitored after a patient took possession.

April Freeman, the lawyer for Queensland Health asked the nurse if pain medications in lethal amounts are ever given out. The nurse responded:

 it was not uncommon and she was not aware of health authorities having control over those drugs once they were handed to patients.

The Coroner's inquiry will continue. 

• Man dies after taking wife's assisted suicide drugs (Link).

Suicide among elderly skyrockets after legalizing Assisted Dying in Victoria Australia

By Leslie Wolfgang

Assisted suicide or Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) has a correlation to increased suicide among the elderly, revealed a peer-reviewed article published this week. According to research published by Dr. David Albert Jones, Director, Anscombe Bioethics Centre in the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health (2023), the rate of suicide among the elderly in the Australian state of Victoria increased by an astonishing 50%, even exclusive of legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Though assisted suicide is sold to the policymakers of Australia and America as a perverse method to reduce suicide generally, the societal outcome of permitting some people to legally commit suicide has caused many other people to attempt and succeed in their own suicides. It is as though suicide is a social contagion — which it is.

This is in addition to a steady increase in demand for legal assisted suicide year over year since VAD was adopted in Australia. According to the annual report of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board’s latest publication for July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, the number of deaths via assisted suicide in Victoria increased by 11% to 306, and the number of applications for assisted suicide increased by six percent over the previous year.  

This data, coupled with the revelation that suicide among the elderly in Victoria has increased by 50% should give pause to any policymakers wondering if assisted suicide is good public policy. 

In the Australian state of Queensland, assisted suicide is happening at a shocking rate as revealed by latest reports. Australians there are dying from assisted suicide and euthanasia at rates even higher than Victoria or Western Australia. In a shocking international news story, the Australian Capital Territory Human Rights Commission in a report to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Committee criticized current Australian law for not permitting minors to utilize their “assisted dying” legal regime.

Many critics of assisted suicide claim that assisted suicide advocates are never satisfied with any restrictions or conditions on access and will continually fight for the expansion of criteria for accessing assisted suicide. Continued efforts for expansion in Australia, Canada, and America may prove them correct.

Leslie Wolfgang is a Board Member of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition -USA.

Australia Human Rights Commission pushes Assisted Suicide for Children

This article was published by National Review online on January 4, 2024.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

Assisted suicide is being legalized all over Australia, and I fear the country is going to go the dark route Canada has after it legalized euthanasia. Case in point: There is a bill before the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to legalize assisted suicide. The Human Rights Commission criticizes the proposal for restricting assisted-suicide eligibility to adults:

Improvements to the proposed scheme:

We detail below certain of our earlier recommendations that have not been incorporated into the Bill.

1. Access for Children and Young People under 18: the current scheme is limited to individuals over the age of 18 years old. Human rights principles require due consideration for the rights of children and young people, including their right to access health care without discrimination and their right to have their views taken into account.

It is the Commission’s view that this extends to decisions for a child or young person to voluntarily end their life with dignity in the same circumstances as adults: namely where they have a condition that is advanced, progressive and expected to cause their death, where they are suffering intolerably, where they are acting voluntarily, and where they have demonstrated maturity and capacity to make such a decision. We recognise that there may need to be additional steps and safeguards for children and young people, particularly where the views of parents and carers differ from the young person or from each other.

If adopted, this means that “mature” minors would be able to be made dead without their parents’ permission and children no matter how young could be put down.

Canada isn’t there yet, but the same approach has been seriously proposed in that country. Belgium and the Netherlands already permit euthanizing children, and the Netherlands allows infanticide under the “Groningen Protocol.” 

Previous articles on this topic:

• The euthanasia lobby is pushing for child and infant euthanasia (Link).
•  Canadian children may be euthanized with or without parental consent (Link).