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🇦🇺 Australia /Health & Science

Telehealth ban still standing between dying patients and their doctors

From ABC Australia · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Context piece
  • A federal law in Australia prohibits doctors from discussing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) via electronic means, threatening them with hefty fines and criminal records.
  • This ban forces terminally ill patients to travel long distances for in-person consultations, causing immense suffering and logistical challenges.
  • Despite calls for reform from health officials and medical associations, the government has not amended the law, leaving patients and doctors in a difficult situation.

A strict federal law in Australia continues to prevent doctors from discussing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) with patients using electronic communications, including phone calls and the internet. Doctors face a potential $300,000 fine and a criminal record if they violate this prohibition, a stance the federal government has maintained despite widespread calls for reform.

The prohibition stands.

— AuthorEmphasizing the government's refusal to change the law.

This outdated law forces terminally ill patients to undertake arduous and often painful journeys, sometimes spanning hundreds or thousands of kilometers, for multiple face-to-face consultations. This is necessary for them to access their legal right to VAD. For those unable to travel, the alternative is an agonizing wait, hoping a doctor can reach them.

With it, the suffering of dying people, forced to travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of painful kilometres to see a doctor face to face, not once, but multiple times, in order to access their legal right to VAD.

— AuthorDescribing the consequences of the telehealth ban on patients.

The ban disproportionately affects individuals in remote communities. Jason Smith, who has Motor Neurone Disease (MND), lives only 20 kilometers from Canberra but required a three-hour journey with his family and carer to reach Parliament House. His condition, which has progressed significantly since his diagnosis in 2017, leaves him dependent on a wheelchair and breathing assistance, communicating with great difficulty.

If this is how hard it is for someone who lives 20km away,' I thought, 'what must it be like for someone forced to travel hundreds? Thousands?'

— AuthorReflecting on the amplified difficulties for remote patients.

Smith's situation highlights the profound challenges faced by patients with debilitating illnesses. His wife, Anthea, described him as a "big teddy bear" in earlier photos, but MND has drastically altered his appearance and capabilities. The difficulty he experiences traveling even a short distance underscores the immense burden placed on patients who must travel vast distances to access VAD services, a situation that advocates argue is inhumane and unnecessary in the age of telehealth.

a big teddy bear

— Georgia SmithDescribing her father Jason Smith.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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