Fly in, Fly out Doctors to Help with Euthanasia

UPDATE ON PUSH FOR TELEHEALTH CONSULTATIONS FOR EUTHANASIA. A REMINDER - Don't forget to Oppose Telehealth video-link consultations for euthanasia and assisted dying.

It is essential we oppose the federal government legislating to allow doctors to use telehealth consultations to authorise physician assisted suicide which all states now allow.

AN ARTICLE IN THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER (5/12/22) "Fly in, fly out doctors to help with euthanasia" stated:

Doctors will fly to regional Queensland to help terminally ill patients end their lives next month after the federal government failed to act on please from state Labor colleagues to change laws restricting assisted dying via telehealth.

Queensland taxpayers will fund the flights to circumvent a federal law that prohibits inciting or counselling "suicide over the phone or internet when the state's scheme begins on January 1.

The Australian revealed in July that federal Attorney-General Mary Dreyfus was investigating changes to the Criminal Code after senior members of the Palaszczuk government raised concerns about doctors being fined $222,000 for discussing euthanasia via telehealth.

But despite 18 million Australians due to be covered by state assisted-dying schemes by the end of January (2023) the federal government has not yet made legislative amendments to exempt doctors.

With federal parliament not due to resume until February, commonwealth prosecutors could be given guidelines not to charge VAD doctors, which Deputy Premier Steven Miles has previously said would be a "relatively simple thing to do".

Mr Dreyfus's office did not respond to questions about whether he would seek guidelines to shield medics from potential prosecution or when the government would move to change laws, but the matter is expected to be raised at a meeting of the nation's attorneys-general on Friday.

THIS IS AN ILLUSTRATION THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT GOING TO WAIT FOR TELEHEALTH TO KEEP ON PUSHING FOR MORE EUTHANASIA!

DON'T DELAY ACT TODAY!

Arguments to use against telehealth consultations for euthanasia and assisted dying

• This is a dramatic step down a perilous path, where physicians would be authorised to prescribe death to patients on demand without even seeing them in person.
• Such telehealth consultations are the most serious step in a patient's life. The consultation must be treated with appropriate seriousness because it involves a "life and death" decision.
• Patients struggling to accept imminent death will, most likely, be deprived of the palliative care that might make the end of their life a journey and not a defeat.
• Palliative care accompanies patients as their struggle through the various stages - or various forms of resistance - to the peaceful acceptance of death. Depriving patients this care and relegating them to a merely a video link "tick" is irresponsible.
• There would be no adequate be safeguards from exploitation, such as elder abuse which is so rampant yet hard to detect particularly in a brief video-link consultation in which the "abusers" may well be present.
• The atmosphere of merely a video consultation can actually lead to impulsive decision making.

FEDERAL PARLIAMENT IS NOT SITTING UNTIL FEBRUARY 2023.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER URGENT ACTION NEXT YEAR 2023!