About us

Background    

The establishment of a national doctors' group supporting voluntary euthanasia (VE) emerged from discussions between the national group Doctors for AMA Neutrality and the state group South Australian Doctors Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia. Doctors for Voluntary Euthanasia Choice was the outcome of this merger.  Doctors for Voluntary Euthanasia Choice has been renamed Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice. 

Aims

In the context of patients with no realistic chance of cure or relief from intolerable distress who wish to end their lives, the primary aim of Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice is to attain legalisation of assisted dying. Part of this objective is to ensure that professional medical bodies adopt or maintain a neutral or supportive attitude towards the legalisation of assisted dying in order to reflect the range of views of their membership.

Activities

To achieve our broad aim, we seek to strengthen societal and political recognition of the need for assistance in dying. We do so by providing evidence that the practice of voluntary euthanasia or assisted dying can be ethical, that it is actively sought for by patients in Australia, and that it is acceptable to Australians.

We convey the evidence through courteous communications to professional medical bodies, politicians and to the general public through the media, usually through letters or email. 

Letters from Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice

Letters or email messages are written by representatives and presented on Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice letterhead, with an appended list of names and qualifications of group members who have agreed to 'sign' the correspondence. (Join up here...)

Examples of letters written may be seen here...

The letters also appear on a private web page for inspection by members at which point additional non-automatic signatory members may decide whether to add their signature.

After a prescribed period, letters with the signatories are posted.