52 people killed in first six months of assisted suicide programme in Victoria Australia

52 people have been killed in Victoria, Australia since the implementation of an assisted suicide law only six months ago. Antonia Tully of the SPUC Lives Worth Living Campaign said: “The rapid take-up of assisted suicide in Victoria is truly alarming.  It is sad that people quickly start to see death as the solution to their problems once the law allows them to take their own lives.”

The Australian state of Victoria legalised assisted suicide in June 2019.  Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board has confirmed that, during the first six months of operation, 52 Australians have been killed.

43 people self-administered lethal drugs to end their life, whilst nine people were killed by a doctor.

These figures have not accounted for those killed under the law during 2020.

The assisted suicide programme operating in Victoria requires patients to administer to themselves a lethal drug. However, doctors are allowed to give patients a lethal injection in particular circumstances.

Another bill legalising voluntary assisted dying in Western Australia was passed in December 2019 and was dubbed the most “unsafe and dangerous in the world”. The law allows people, including very vulnerable people, to self-administer lethal drugs with no supervision. Doctors are allowed to distribute advice to patients on how they can end their life.

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