New South Wales
Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill (2017)
What follows are the parts of a
euthanasia/assisted
suicide bill that pertain to protection of freedom of conscience.
The Bill has been released for public consultation.
The Bill permits refusal for any reason, making no distinction
between refusal for reasons of conscience and refusal for other reasons.
It also equally protects both participating and non-participating
practitioners from criminal and civil liability.
Division 2 Provision of assistance
6. Right to provide or refuse assistance
(1) A primary medical practitioner may, if satisfied that a patient who
has made a request
for assistance to the primary medical practitioner is
eligible to make the request, and
that all of the requirements of
Division 3 have been met in relation to the request:
(a) assist the patient to end the patient’s life, or
(b) for any reason and at any time, refuse to provide
that assistance.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt, Division 3 does not impose on any person
a duty to
comply with any requirement of that Division, except to the
extent that compliance
is required for the purposes of authorising the
primary medical practitioner to provide
assistance under subsection (1).
Division 4 Review of requests for assistance
Part 3 Effect of Act on other rights and obligations
24. Participation in provision of assistance
discretionary
(1) A health care provider or other person is not under any duty, whether
by contract,
statute or other legal requirement, to participate in the
provision of assistance to a
patient under this Act or to conduct any
examination of the patient for the purposes
of this Act.
(2) If a health care provider is unable or unwilling to carry out a
direction of a primary
medical practitioner for the purpose of the
primary medical practitioner assisting a
patient under this Act, that
health care provider must comply with any request (of the
patient or a
person acting on behalf of the patient) to transfer a copy of the patient’s
medical records to a new health care provider.
25. Protection from liability
(1) No criminal or civil liability is incurred by a protected person, or
any person acting
under the direction of a protected person, for doing
either of the following in good
faith:
(a) participating in the provision of assistance under
this Act,
(b) refusing to participate in the provision of
assistance under this Act.