Terminology

Voluntary assisted dying would generally involve a doctor prescribing a lethal drug which may either be administered by a healthcare professional or taken by the patient at the time of their choice, without further assistance. See our page on the NSW VAD Law 

VAD is also known as Voluntary Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Dying or Medical Aid in Dying. 

Decision-making Capacity
A person has decision-making capacity in relation to VAD if they can comprehend and retain the information needed to make the decision, including the consequences of the decision and use and weigh that information as part of their decision-making process.

Suicide
The intentional act of killing oneself.

VAD is not suicide. The word ‘suicide’ should be restricted to those persons taking their own life who would normally have gone on to live a happy and purposeful life with appropriate intervention and support. According to the American Public Health Association, “Medical and legal experts have recognised that the term ‘suicide’ or ‘assisted suicide’ is inappropriate when discussing the choice of a mentally competent, terminally ill patient to seek medications that he or she could consume to bring about a peaceful and dignified death.”

Assisting a suicide or an attempted suicide is against the law in Australia except where voluntary assisted dying laws allow a person to seek medical assistance to end their lives.

Palliative care

This is specialist healthcare which focuses on a range of treatments that relieve a dying person’s pain or suffering. This includes medical, physical, mental and spiritual suffering for both patients and their carers. The treatments include medication to relieve pain and anxiety, as well as care for the person’s psychological and existential suffering. It often occurs with specialist palliative care wards of hospitals and in hospices, but it can also take place in a person’s home.

It includes a range of treatments that relieve a dying person’s pain or suffering. It can include medical, physical, mental and spiritual comfort for both patients and their carers. The word ‘palliative’ comes from the Latin word ‘palliare’, which means ‘to cloak’. So it has come to mean alleviate or even, disguise, the pain of dying. The central credo of palliative care is ‘we shall neither prolong nor hasten death’.

Passive Euthanasia
This term is sometimes used to refer to the practice of ceasing treatment so that the patient dies more quickly than they might if treatment continued.

In Australia a competent patient has the right to refuse any medical treatment and refusal of treatment can also be included in an advance care directive. This commonly covers circumstances where a person is kept alive on machine or refuses CPR but can apply to any kind of medical treatment.

Doctors also have the right to discontinue treatment that the doctor deems to be futile.

Passive euthanasia is legal in Australia but is NOT Voluntary Assisted Dying. 

Involuntary Euthanasia
Where a person who has not given, or is not capable of giving, consent is given a substance or procedure to hasten their death. Nowhere in the world is Involuntary Euthanasia legal and no jurisdiction is contemplating making it legal. 

Doctrine of double effect
This doctrine makes intention in the mind of the doctor a crucial factor in judging the moral correctness of the doctor’s action in treating a patient. The effect is that if a doctor is tending to someone who cannot be restored to health, the doctor can give the patient medication which may have the unintended consequence of helping them die more quickly, provided that the doctor’s actual intention is to ease suffering. What the doctor must not do is give them medication with the intention of helping them die – even if only death will end their suffering. This, of course, is very different to the process of voluntary assisted dying which is now legal in five Australian states.

Deep Continuous Palliative or Terminal Sedation
The gradual, titrated increase, by continuous infusion, of sedatives and analgesics, usually without the provision of food and fluids, until the patient enters a coma and remains so until death occurs. It is generally considered a treatment of last resort by palliative care specialists when a patient’s pain and suffering can no longer be controlled.

Advance Care Planning
This process involves thinking about and deciding what sort of medical treatment you wish to receive in the future, at the end of life. It helps guide doctors, family and friends in making decisions that fulfil your wishes and are in your best interests. Advance care planning can be done at any age or level of health. One of the most important parts of planning includes the legal appointment of someone you trust to be a substitute decision-maker if you can no longer speak for yourself. This person is called your Enduring Guardian. You can appoint more than one. Another aspect of planning involves completing a written document, called an Advance Care Directive, which clearly outlines your wishes. See our Advance Care Planning page for more information

Advance Care Directive
This is an expression of your wishes or written list of instructions to your doctor or health practitioner, made out in anticipation of possible treatments for health problems. It will apply if you are unable to express your wishes or instructions and it must be prepared at a time when you are competent. You can list specific conditions under which you do not want particular treatments such as resuscitation, antibiotics, or artificial nutrition or hydration. See our Advance Care Planning page

Enduring Guardian 
This is a trusted person who you provide with the legally-binding authority to make health decisions for you, if you are unable to do so for yourself. To nominate this person you must complete a statutory document at a time when you are competent to make this decision and this document must be signed by yourself, your Enduring Guardian and an independent witness (a legislated signatory). When deciding on whom to appoint, you should consider who would best understand your values and wishes, and who would have the skills to make good decisions for you. See our Advance Care Planning page