The Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is currently conducting a public consultation about proposed euthanasia and assisted suicide laws for the territory.

Participants are invited to complete an online survey, which asks a series of questions about the form that euthanasia and assisted suicide laws should take. 

The questions contained in the survey are very telling about the direction that the Legislative Assembly is heading. 

See for example some of the questions that participants are asked to say whether they agree, strongly agree, disagree, strongly agree or neither agree or disagree with: 

“A person should be required to make multiple requests to access Voluntary Assisted Dying”

“A person should be able to access VAD if they only have a mental health condition as the reason for their access”

“Someone should be able to say in their advanced care plan that they want to have the option for VAD in the future, even if they don’t have the capacity to make that decision for themselves at the time, due to something like dementia”.

“Medical professionals should be allowed to start a discussion about VAD with their patients if they also provide all other treatment and care options”

“More than one medical professional should be required to assess the person who has requested to access VAD”

“Doctors and nurse practitioners should be able to assess if a person is allowed to access VAD”.

These questions reveal an openness to implementing a euthanasia and assisted suicide regime in the territory that is clearly more extreme than other regimes already in place in other jurisdictions. 

That’s why it’s so important that the government hears from you. 

We would encourage everyone to take a few moments to fill in the survey or make a submission to push back against this relentless push to further liberalise Australia’s already dangerous euthanasia laws. 

The survey is open until 1 March 2024. It can be accessed here.