hen Kimberly Jayne spoke to her former partner Rohan on the phone, months after their amicable breakup, she was shocked to hear that his speech was slurred. “I feared he’d had a stroke,” she recalls.
“I resented going all the way to and I’m glad he didn’t have to spend much time in that facility.”Complicating the matter is that Calvary Bethlehem, a public hospital specialising in palliative care, is Victoria’s largest health provider for people living with MND. But because it is a Catholic institution, it does not provide voluntary assisted dying.
Three states – Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales – include institutional objection provisions in their legislation. It means in those states, people are able to access voluntary assisted dying if they are a resident of an aged care or palliative care facility, even if the facility objects, because it is considered the patient’s home. VAD advocates
Dr James Hurley, a voluntary assisted dying doctor working in Victoria’s Ballarat region, said consistent, humane laws are needed throughout Australia. “I am certainly hearing ongoing stories of obstruction to access VAD by Catholic providers, even now,” he says.