Sydney archbishop warns of ‘tele-death’ under new assisted dying law

Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory is to vote this month on the legislation of Voluntary Assisted Dying. If the bill is passed, assisted dying will be legal everywhere on the Australian continent.  

The Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher condemned legislation that will allow people to obtain Voluntary Assisted Dying after only a consultation held by telephone or over the internet.  

A federal ban on “tele-consultation” was recently repealed by Australia’s ruling Labor party, weeks before the last remaining territory of Australia where assisted dying is illegal prepares to vote on the issue. 

Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory is to vote this month on the legislation of Voluntary Assisted Dying. If the bill is passed, assisted dying will be legal everywhere on the Australian continent.  

Archbishop Fisher said the “tele-consultations” were being promoted as a “tele-health” but were really “tele-death”. He told Vatican News the concept – which is opposed by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – removed crucial safeguards in discerning the needs of individual patients. 

Fisher also urged the Catholic Church in countries where assisted dying is now legal to “educate” other countries where it is not legal to “make the case for being reverent and safeguarding human life”. 

“How quickly we went in this country from having no euthanasia legal at all to now more than 14,000 people have applied for it, more than 7,000 have died from it,” said Fisher, referring to the rapid expansion of laws for assisted dying in Australia.

While the Northern Territory was the first Australian state to legalise Voluntary Assisted Dying in 1996, a federal parliament repealed the legislation in 1997. That repeal was rescinded in 2022.

In 2017, the state of Victoria legalised Voluntary Assisted Dying. Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales followed suit.  

In 2022 the federal ban on euthanasia was repealed and the Australian Capital Territory Act legalised Voluntary Assisted Dying, known as VAD. The Labor Party recently voted for MPs to be allowed a conscience vote on the VAD.

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