{"id":304820,"date":"2024-01-08T16:42:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T22:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=304820"},"modified":"2024-01-08T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T17:33:13","slug":"commission-australia-children-assisted-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/commission-australia-children-assisted-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Commission wants Australia to allow children to request assisted death"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Australia\u2019s new <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qld.gov.au\/health\/support\/voluntary-assisted-dying\/explained\/eligibility-criteria\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill of 2023<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has drawn the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/alexschadenberg.blogspot.com\/2024\/01\/australia-human-rights-commission.html?m=1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">attention<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of those who wish to see assisted death opened to those under the age of 18. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Human Rights Commission submitted an inquiry to the Voluntary Assisted Death (VAD) Committee regarding the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/australia-queensland-deaths-assisted-dying\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">changes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> made last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Commission&#8217;s six-page long <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.act.gov.au\/__data\/assets\/pdf_file\/0008\/2358116\/VAD-Submission-073-ACT-Human-Rights-Commission.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">inquiry<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> addresses four areas where they feel the new bill \u201cmay fall short.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most strikingly, the ACT Commission critiques that the bill does not make this form of suicide available to minors under age 18. It claims that \u201chuman 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.\u201d The members feel that if the minor meets all of the requirements of the bill and also \u201cdemonstrate[s] maturity\u201d with decision making, that the child should be allowed to request voluntary assisted death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their second critique suggests that people who have \u201can inability to communicate\u201d or have lost the capacity to make this decision should not be disqualified from seeking assisted suicide. Instead, they feel if that person made a written request for VAD when they still had the capacity to do so, then that request should be acted upon when that person loses their capacity. They recognized the \u201cfraught ethical issues\u201d with this idea but encouraged the VAD committee to consider this when the bill has been in place for three years \u2014 for the sake of \u201chuman rights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/australia-queensland-deaths-assisted-dying\/\"><em>Assisted dying in Australian state of Queensland hits shocking number in law\u2019s first six months<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thirdly, the ACT Commission critiques the amount of safeguards in place to restrict eligibility for VAD to only those who qualify and those who obtain witnesses, approval from care providers, submit a formal and final request, and submit to a final assessment by their practitioner before proceeding with their suicide. It also points out that the amount of people needed to be involved in the process is too great: the person making the request, a person to sign for those who cannot sign for themselves, a health practitioner, and two witnesses (neither of which may be a beneficiary in any way of the person\u2019s death). It states, \u201ca scheme whose purpose is to facilitate access to VAD in order to help individuals end their lives with dignity, and to ensure that intolerable suffering is not unnecessarily prolonged, should avoid unnecessary delays that may frustrate its purpose.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And finally, the Commission opposes the five-day limit available for requesting a review of a denied VAD request. It reasons that five days is too short a time for someone who is terminally ill or suffering intolerably to be able to \u201clearn about their review rights and to action them.\u201d They suggest that the normal 28-day period be allowed in these cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this has been requested under the guise of human rights and the catchphrase \u201cdeath with dignity.\u201d Allowing children to request legal suicide is a dangerous proposition when it is known that decision-making skills are not fully <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthdaily.com\/2015\/02\/18\/at-what-age-is-the-brain-fully-developed\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">developed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in humans until their early twenties. Minors may also be more easily influenced or coerced by caregiver and parental decisions, friend groups, and social media \u2014 all of which may make voluntary assisted suicide appear as the best solution to their pain. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In reality, these efforts to broaden the scope of assisted death are likely to follow in Canada\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-assisted-death-canada-wait-time-treatment\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">footsteps<\/span><\/a>, eventually<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> restricting life-giving and comforting health care to patients who are struggling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/tell-congress-stop-the-doj-from-targeting-pro-life-americans\/?utm_campaign=doj_petition&amp;utm_medium=lan_website\"><b><i>The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail this Christmas for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s new Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill of 2023 has drawn the attention of those who wish to see assisted death opened to those under the age of 18. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Human Rights Commission submitted an inquiry to the Voluntary Assisted Death (VAD) Committee regarding the changes made last year.\u00a0 The Commission&#8217;s six-page [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":670,"featured_media":191090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Human Rights Commission wants Australia to allow children to request assisted death<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Committee feels if a minor meets the requirements of the bill and \u201cdemonstrate[s] maturity,\u201d he or she should be allowed to seek death.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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