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Proposed law will offer right to die

TERMINALLY ill people will have a legally recognised right to die under new laws proposed by the State Government.

Attorney-General Jim McGinty said the State Government was examining British laws which enshrine "living wills".

These would allow adults to decide, while they were still healthy, to refuse life-saving treatment if they became gravely ill.

Medical staff would not become liable for withholding or withdrawing treatment from an incapacitated patient under the terms of the will.

Western Australia laws are currently ambiguous because they allow patients to refuse medical treatment but doctors are not allowed to do anything that might hasten their death.

Tasmania and New South Wales are the only other States that do not have provision for living wills.

The proposal has drawn criticism from Right to Life Association of Western Australia president Peter O'Meara, who warned it would open the door to legalised euthanasia.

Mr O'Meara said he had not seen the proposed legislation but the organisation would fight to ensure that third parties, like next of kin, were not allowed to decide to hasten the death of a non-responsive patient.

The rights of terminally ill people to receive quality medical treatment had to be protected.

But Mr McGinty said the legislation would not sanction the taking of human life and would avoid the issue of voluntary euthanasia.

The State needed sensible laws to give people certainty when dealing with end-of-life treatment.

"If someone of sound mind has made a decision to refuse life supporting treatment if they fall into a vegetative state, then their wishes should be respected and that decision should be given legal force," Mr McGinty said.

Australian Medical Association Western Australia president Paul Skerritt said the proposal seemed simple but it was a complex issue and legislation would have to be drafted carefully.