Submission to Expert Panel on Voluntary Assisted Dying

Palliative Care WA has been very active in providing opportunities for our sector and interested community members to discuss and debate the recommendations from the Joint Select Committee Report on End of Life Choices.

Over the past twelve months we have delivered four highly engaged forums with over 450 attendees to consider the three components of the report i.e. Advance Care Planning; Palliative Care and Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Currently our President, Dr Elissa Campbell, is on the Ministerial Expert Panel for Voluntary Assisted Dying while our CEO, Ms Lana Glogowski, is on the Expert Panel for Advance Care Planning.

“While we don’t wish to be distracted from our mission of advocating for improved access to quality palliative care  and improving awareness and uptake of advance care planning for Western Australians, we recognise the community interest in the proposed Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation and the impact on the palliative care sector. We have therefore submitted a response to the voluntary assisted dying discussion paper as part of the consultation process.” reported Lana Glogowski, CEO.

“However we would like to reiterate that we do not see voluntary assisted dying as part of palliative care.  Palliative care’s intent is to neither prolong nor hasten death, as clearly articulated by the World Health Organisation definition. We will continue to focus on encouraging all Western Australians to start having conversations about what matters to them for the last stage of life as well as work with Government and other providers to improve accessibility to palliative care for all Western Australians”.

View our submission