A new report shows more Queenslanders are trying to access euthanasia and choosing to end their lives with it. Source: The Catholic Leader.
Queensland’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board handed down their 2024-2025 annual report in September, which showed 2039 people were assessed for eligibility and 1072 people died from VAD between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025.
“Compared with the previous 12 months, this represents a 31 per cent increase in the number of people assessed for eligibility and a 35 per cent increase in the number of deaths following administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance,” review board chairperson Associate Professor Helen Irving said in the report.
Townsville Bishop Tim Harris, who has closely monitored the development of euthanasia within Queensland, said the increased application of VAD deeply troubled him.
“This fact is not to be celebrated but condemned, especially when the state has chosen to go down this path,” he said.
“Adequate funding for palliative care still has not been addressed and if it was with the proper education VAD would not have seen the light of day.
“Instead, we have government sanctioned suicide being offered to people at their most vulnerable. Humanity deserves better.”
The Queensland review board recognised the high numbers of people seeking access had led to a shortage of practitioners available to provide VAD.
The report showed the median age for requesting VAD was 75 years and the primary cause was cancer diagnosis.
Almost a quarter, 23 per cent, of people requesting access to VAD had not accessed palliative care.
In June, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the advance of euthanasia in France, which was adopting similar measures to Australian states.
Pope Leo shared his hope “that the Spirit of the Lord may enlighten our minds, so that we may know how to defend the intrinsic dignity of every human person”.
Bishop Harris agreed with Pope Leo’s concerns.
“I echo the words of Pope Leo by saying that the inherent dignity of every human being is never respected when VAD is applied,” he said.
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‘Humanity deserves better’ – more Queenslanders are accessing and dying from VAD, new report shows (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
