‘Cruel beyond belief’: The legislative push upsetting expert doctor

A geriatrician and former NSW Senior of the Year has described a bill before parliament to allow aged care homes to force terminally ill residents to be moved offsite to access voluntary assisted dying as “cruel beyond belief”, with legal advice also warning it would be unconstitutional.

Dr John Ward, who was awarded the 2024 Australia Day honour for his lifelong commitment to providing medical care for disadvantaged people and older Australians, said VAD had proven to be a compassionate way to die for people suffering and there should be no obstacles to accessing it.

“Like most doctors, I took a while to come around to VAD, because as doctors we are about saving lives, but over the years I have come to see we do have a role, it is part of end-of-life care,” Ward said.

“In NSW, it has been a very good process, very well organised and uniformly been a successful way to end life for people who are suffering.”

Liberal MLC Susan Carter has introduced a bill to amend NSW laws so “residential facilities may decline to facilitate the administration of voluntary assisted dying services in the same way, and subject to the same obligations to make alternative arrangements, as hospitals”.

Ward said “not too many people in residential aged care will access VAD” but as a geriatrician he has referred some people, suffering from diseases such as Parkinson’s, to the VAD board.

“The thing about it is, it is a very emotional process to go through for the person and the family, and you certainly don’t want any obstacles,” Ward said.

“The staff love their residents and treat them like family, and the residents love the staff, it’s a very close relationship – so to propose moving them is cruel beyond belief, a denial of human rights and would be in breach of the new aged care act.”

Expert legal advice from Arthur Moses, SC, funded by the Legal Cannabis Party, also concludes that under new federal aged care laws, providers “must recognise and address the needs, goals and preferences of individuals for palliative care and end-of-life care”.

“A state bill that practically creates a right for providers to deny reasonable access to a medical practitioner or person to attend a residential facility to facilitate or assist a person to participate in the statutory scheme for voluntary assisting dying is inconsistent with the obligation in the Commonwealth law,” the advice says.

NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham said the legal opinion made it clear the bill was ill-thought out and would probably result in a High Court challenge.

“The Legalise Cannabis party is a party founded on the values of freedom, choice and civil liberty. We will defend NSW’s hard-won VAD laws tooth and nail,” Buckingham said.

“This expert legal opinion clearly illustrates this bill is ill conceived, ill informed and constitutionally invalid.”

Buckingham said MPs should “pause and reconsider their position” before supporting the bill.

“Not only because this proposal has such an egregious and discriminatory impact, especially on rural and regional people, but also because this bill, if passed, will be fought in the High Court and struck down,” Buckingham said.

Carter told parliament her bill was not “a handbrake on accessing euthanasia”, but would give aged care facilities the “freedom and that choice that they do not have at present”.

“The fact this bill would align aged care facilities with hospitals should give everyone voting for this bill comfort.”

Liberal MLC Susan Carter

“The fact that this bill would align aged care facilities with hospitals should give everyone voting for this bill comfort,” Carter told parliament.

Her bill has 12 co-sponsors, including fellow Liberals Anthony Roberts, Damien Tudehope, Chris Rath and Natasha Maclaren-Jones, plus Mark Latham and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has also backed Carter’s bill, insisting it would be a reasonable compromise for aged care homes to move a terminally ill resident to another facility if they wanted to choose the timing of their death.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, who introduced the original VAD laws in 2021, said the bill should be abandoned.

“This expert advice is humiliating for Susan Carter, and Mark Speakman, SC, who backed the bill. It’s pretty obvious state laws can’t trump rights and protections enshrined in federal laws,” he said.

“This cruel and divisive bill has caused internal conflict in the Liberal Party, anxiety among people in aged care that they could be kicked out of home, and yet no work or consultation was done to see if it was even constitutionally valid.

“It’s time for Susan Carter to do the honourable thing, withdraw her bill and leave terminally ill people in aged care alone.”

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