Deputy challenges assisted dying waiver proposal

A deputy wants to remove a waiver from the draft assisted dying law over concerns it allows people to give up the need to reconfirm they want an assisted death.

Assistant Minister for Health and Social Services Deputy Barbara Ward said the waiver could be considered to breach ethics and the law and has put forward an amendment to remove it from the law.

Health Minister Deputy Tom Binet set out the draft assisted dying law in September and it has since been scrutinised by a panel of politicians.

He said he believed "if it's a person's wish that they're in such a bad state that they don't want to come around from a terminal illness, then that should be down to them".

The waiver would allow people to give up the need to reconfirm they want an assisted death if their capacity to do so deteriorates rapidly.

Ward said the inclusion of the waiver opened opportunities for "misinterpretation, manipulation and possible abuse and coercion".

Politicians are due to debate the draft assisted dying law, including this amendment, later this month.

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