(QLD) End State Residency Requirements to Access Voluntary Assisted Dying

Author: Christopher Noonan | Publish date: 01/09/24

Problem Identification: 

To be eligible to receive Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) in Queensland, one must have been ordinarily resident in the state for at least 12 months, or be granted an exemption. 

Queensland’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 states that an eligible patient for VAD, ‘has been ordinarily resident in Queensland for at least 12 months immediately before the person makes the first request; or has been granted a Queensland residency exemption by the chief executive’. 

This requirement constitutes further administrative barriers for those patients hoping to receive VAD.

Context: 

VAD allows terminally ill patients to have a medical professional assist them in ending their life. VAD was legalized in Queensland in 2021 by the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act (VADA). To be eligible for VAD, patients in Queensland must have been diagnosed with a medical condition that is expected to cause death within 12 months. Residency requirements were introduced for VAD to stop residents of other countries, or states, traveling specifically to receive VAD, a phenomenon also known as death tourism. VAD is currently legal in all other states, and will likely be available in both territories sometime soon. 

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