Man almost dies after taking partner’s assisted suicide drugs

An Australian man has almost died after taking his partner’s assisted suicide drugs.

The anonymous couple were at Gold Coast University Hospital’s ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ unit, where they reportedly drank shots of alcohol before the woman used the drugs to end her life. He then ingested the remaining lethal drugs and had to be resuscitated in the emergency department.

The hospital is investigating the incident, with a spokesperson saying that it is taking “additional steps” to “strengthen clinical hospital processes over and above the requirements of the voluntary assisted dying legislation”.

Second incident

It is almost two years since Queensland introduced so-called voluntary assisted dying in 2023 and since then, more than 1,000 patients have undergone assisted suicide. Under its 2021 Act, patients can be given a locked box of assisted suicide drugs to take at home. Unconsumed drugs are supposed to be returned within 14 days.

But in 2023, a man used his wife’s lethal drugs to kill himself instead of returning them within two days of her death. On the day the drugs had arrived, his wife had undergone assisted suicide in hospital rather than at home. The former Government pledged a review, but it is not set to take place until January 2026.

The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert said: “There are countless reasons why legalising assisted suicide is both immoral and impractical, and these incidents just add to that list.

“If the practice were legalised in the UK, who is to say these same problems would not arise here? The safest option is not to go down that dangerous route and instead keep the law as it is.”

Danger

Last year, the Scottish Parliament was told that some patients may take up to three hours to die from assisted suicide drugs.

Chair of the Australian state of Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, Julian Gardner, reported that although death “normally occurs within 30 minutes”, it “is not deemed to be a complication if somebody takes two to three hours” to die after lapsing into a coma. In 2022 to 2023, one person in Western Australia died after 6 hours and 29 minutes.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of the UK’s leading anti-assisted suicide group, Care Not Killing, said: “It’s very concerning that people can take several hours to die after taking these drugs.”

“There is evidence from Oregon in the USA, where assisted suicide has been legal for decades, that one person took an inhumane and horrendous 137 hours to die. We need a much more robust scrutiny process in the Scottish parliament.”