Legalising Assisted Dying Has Led to More Suicide

The Anscombe Bioethics Centre Press Release, 9 January 2024

New research published in the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health has found that the introduction of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) has failed to reduce the rate of unassisted suicide in the State of Victoria. 

In fact, since the law came into force, suicide among older people in Victoria has increased by more than 50%.

Suicide Will increase in Queensland If Labor Introduces and Passes this Bill

Dr. Tim & Anne Coyle

By Mark Bowling

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Dr Coyle is equally critical of the Queensland Labor government’s push to legalize euthanasia under the state’s proposed Voluntary Assisted Dying bill.

“It is deceitful to call it VAD as if it is voluntary,” he said. 

“Why not call it what it is – euthanasia. It will be killing people with a lethal cocktail.”

Dr Coyle said evidence showed that suicide had increased in jurisdictions where euthanasia has been legalized. 

Walcha Woman Claiming Assisted Suicide, Found Guilty of Murder

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by Australian Associated Press

After sedating and gassing her grazier partner to inherit his property, Natasha Beth Darcy screamed at paramedics to keep on performing CPR after they declared him dead.

Darcy kept up her theatrics, telling authorities and first responders repeated lies, maintaining Mathew Dunbar (as pictured) had killed himself.

But after more than two days of deliberations, a NSW supreme court jury on Tuesday found the 46-year-old guilty of murdering the sheep farmer.

Trial Continues...Widow Claims Assisted Suicide, Prosecutor Says Murder

By Harriet Alexander 

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In the months before the death of Walcha sheep grazier Mathew John Dunbar in August 2017, the internet history of his partner suggested an expanding interest in ways to take a life.

In February, Natasha Beth Darcy allegedly researched poisonous spiders, fungi and snakes. By March, she was running searches on epidurals, spinal taps and the number of tablets required to be taken to execute a suicide. In June, she allegedly typed into a search engine: “how to commit murder”.

Natasha Beth Darcy, 46, was the sole beneficiary of Mr Dunbar’s estate, which included Pandora, a 1200-acre property on Thunderbolts Way in northern NSW valued at $3.5 million. She has pleaded not guilty to his murder.

Graham Morant Red Flag to Oppose Assisted Suicide Legalization

By Richard Egan.
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In a unanimous decision by three judges of the Queensland Court of Appeal handed down in Brisbane on 19 June 2020 in the case of R v Morant [2020] QCA 135, Graham Morant’s appeal against his conviction for aiding the suicide of his wife was rejected on all four grounds of appeal and the sentence of 10 years imprisonment was upheld as fair.

Morant was convicted on two counts under s311 of the Queensland Criminal Code. The first was that he had counselled Ms Morant to kill herself and thereby induced her to do so. The second was that he had aided her in killing herself.