Six years of data found the oral process worked safely from 2019 to 2025
Victoria’s oral voluntary assisted dying model produced safe and consistent outcomes across its first six years, according to new research covering 2019 to 2025.
Published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, the study analysed the first six years of experience in Victoria, the first Australian state to make voluntary assisted dying available.
Researchers found patients who self-administered the medication reliably died without the complications linked to older multi-drug combinations used in some other countries.
Lead author Professor Michael Dooley is from the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also directs the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying Statewide Pharmacy Service.
Dooley described the results as world-first evidence that the Victorian model is a global benchmark for safety and gives reassurance to patients, families and clinicians.
“Our world-first data provides definitive evidence that the Victorian model is a global benchmark for safety and provides reassurance for patients, families and clinicians that voluntary assisted dying is working as intended, supporting compassionate and informed choice at end-of-life,” Professor Dooley said.
Across the 2019 to 2025 period, the paper found the oral model worked as intended and avoided the added complexity of multi-drug protocols used overseas.
Several safeguards sit around self-administration in Victoria, and the study says those checks were crucial to the outcomes reported over six years.
Professor Michael Dooley findings
Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Statewide Pharmacy Service supports patients, families and carers through the process. Before supplying the medication, pharmacists assess each patient’s knowledge, decision-making capacity and ability to swallow.
According to the study, that pharmacy service plays a vital role in supporting safe self-administration of the oral medication.
Dooley also said the Victorian medication protocol gives patients a safer, more effective and more consistent experience than some older international practices.
Meanwhile, the paper says the six-year review offers a roadmap for healthcare systems that want compassionate, evidence-based end-of-life care.
As jurisdictions worldwide continue to consider voluntary assisted dying, the Victorian experience is presented as a benchmark for adoption.
Monash University and Alfred Health researchers worked on the study. Co-authors Tien Nguyen, Phuc Phan and David Seymour are linked to the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying Statewide Pharmacy Service at Alfred Health.
The Alfred Hospital Ethics Committee supported the work under Reference Project 521/23. Authors also reported no competing interests.
In a second key point, Dooley said the Victorian approach has been supported by doctors, nurses and pharmacists, and has shown that terminally ill patients can safely self-administer medication to end their life if they choose to.
