Voluntary Assisted Dying Campaign

Oct 4

Everyone deserves dignity in death

Voluntary Assisted Dying Position Statement

Humanists Australia believes that how we die matters as much as how we live. We support voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws that let terminally ill and intolerably suffering people choose a medically assisted death, under strict safeguards and free from coercion or religious interference.

VAD is now lawful in every Australian state and the ACT (with legislation being considered in the Northern Territory), and reform is under discussion at the Commonwealth level. Public support for VAD in Australia consistently polls at around 80%. Our position is grounded in humanist values — compassion, personal autonomy, and reason — not doctrine.

Take action: Hem's Law

Sign the petition for Hem's Law

Current law lets a legal guardian authorise ending nutrition and hydration for a person with advanced dementia who has lost decision-making capacity — a process that can take days to weeks. But guardians cannot authorise a quicker, medically administered death for the same person, even though the outcome — death — is the same.

The Hem's Law petition, started by Angie List and signed by nearly 50,000 people, calls for law reform so that guardians can authorise a merciful, medically administered death for people with advanced dementia who have permanently lost the ability to swallow and are in an irreversible dying process. It proposes real safeguards: sign-off from two independent clinicians, formal witnessed consent from the decision-maker, a binding opt-out on personal, cultural or religious grounds, and mandatory education for families on end-stage dementia.

Humanists Australia believes the current law creates a needless, prolonged form of suffering for people who have already lost the capacity to consent to anything — and that reason and compassion both point toward Hem's Law's proposed reform.

Sign the Hem's Law petition

Latest News on VAD

Government blocks telehealth-for-VAD bill, defying its own party's conference vote

After parliament returned from its winter recess, independent MP Kate Chaney moved a private member's bill to allow VAD consultations by telehealth — removing the current Commonwealth criminal law barrier that treats telehealth VAD advice as "counselling suicide." The bill had the backing of the AMA, the Law Council, state attorneys-general and health ministers, and 20 health organisations.

The government and opposition combined to vote it down 74–12 — even though Labor's own national conference had voted weeks earlier to scrap the telehealth ban "while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards." Health Minister Mark Butler cited concerns about inconsistent telehealth practice; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has argued in-person consultation better protects vulnerable people.

For Australians in regional and remote areas, this means continuing to travel — often long distances, while critically unwell — simply to access a lawful medical choice. Read more…