Voluntary euthanasia bill begins it's slow progress through WA Parliament

After sitting for 20 hours and rising at 5.21am on Friday morning, MPs had still only voted through 50 of the the Bill's 185 clauses with even MPs who support euthanasia expressing concerns.

Debate will resume on September 17 and it is likely the bill will take weeks in the Lower House before moving to even greater scrutiny in the Upper House.

The government had hoped to get at least 100 clauses passed but the slow pace makes it possible a final vote on the the bill won't be possible until the end of the year.

Under the present WA bill VAD would only be available to a person who is:

An eligible person would have to make three requests to die - two verbal and one written.

Those requests would have to be signed off by two doctors who are independent of each other and there would be a minimum of nine days between the initial request and final approval.

Once approved a patient would be able to self-administer the lethal drug or choose for a medical or nurse practitioner to do it for them.

This is one of the key differences between the proposed WA bill and Victorian laws, which only allow self-administration.

It would be a criminal offence to coerce anyone into accessing voluntary assisted dying.

Voluntary Assisted Dying came into effect in Victoria on June 19. That state's legislation differs from the proposed WA legislation in a number of other key areas.

Under the proposed WA legislation a health practitioner can raise the issue of VAD whereas in Victoria health practitioners are forbidden to raise the subject - it must be the patient who raises the topic.

The Victorian law requires self-administration of the VAD medication and practitioner administration only where a person is physically incapable of administering it.

In WA, self-administration is the preferred option but if the doctor advises this would be inappropriate, a person can choose practitioner administration if, for example, they have concerns about taking the medication themselves."

While doctors must conduct eligibility assessments, the WA bill allows nurse practitioners who have at least two years' experience to give the medication.

The WA bill further differs from Victoria's law in that WA doctors are not required to apply for a VAD permit from the government.

Recently The Senior reported on Perth VAD campaigner Belinda Teh, 27 who walked 4500km across Australia in honour of her late mother.

Mareia Teh suffered a harrowing death from cancer two years ago, unable to explore the end-of-life option she wanted.

Hundreds of supporters turned out for Ms Teh's arrival in Perth's Kings Park Kings Park for the final steps of her journey from Melbourne.

Belinda was met by WA Premier Mark McGowan who said he hoped to have the legislation passed by Christmas: "Belinda has passed the baton to us; it is now up to the parliament to make its decision," Mr McGowan said.