PATRICK v RESPONDENT VAD 1/2026 (Voluntary Assisted Dying) [2026] ACAT 40 (LInk to AUSTLII).
The applicant sought help in ending his life. He made a request to access voluntary assisted dying under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2024. The respondent decided that the applicant did not meet various eligibility requirements under the Act. The Tribunal was asked to review those decisions.
Capacity
The Tribunal made orders on 4 April 2026 declaring that the applicant has decision-making capacity in relation to voluntary assisted dying. The Tribunal said at [67]:
In our view, establishing a lack of decision-making capacity in relation to VAD similarly involves demonstrating that the applicant lacks even a general kind of understanding about the nature of their conditions, including how it might develop and whether it might be expected to cause death. An applicant need not be able to understand that there are treatment options which might alleviate or contribute to their suffering, and palliative care or other legal options that may be alternatives to accessing VAD. Or an applicant need not be able, again at even a general level, recognise the risks and benefits of VAD and its alternatives so as to be able to say they have weighed up the consequences of the main choices.
Advanced condition expected to cause death
Under section 136, the Tribunal is able to review only a reviewable decision. A ‘reviewable decision’ is defined in section 134. At [45] the Tribunal held that it does not have jurisdiction to review the respondent’s decisions that the applicant did not meet the eligibility requirement in section 11(1)(b) as his diagnosed conditions, either alone or in combination, are not advanced and are not expected to cause the applicant’s death. At [8] the Tribunal noted:
In his application for review of the first assessment report, the applicant states that he has three medical conditions which, taken together have produced what he describes as Chronic Pain Syndrome. He claims these conditions will reasonably foreseeably cause his death, either through complications arising from a complete loss of mobility and reliance on high-dose sedation, or the intolerable pain leading the applicant to take his own life. He claims that his conditions are deteriorating, have been assessed as severe and not able to be managed, and cannot be cured. He claims his conditions are advanced, progressive, and terminal in effect.
The Tribunal noted that the applicant may try again by making a further request, but for now the applicant is not able to access voluntary assisted dying.
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