Assisted dying clause gagging doctors set to be debated

A gag clause stopping doctors from raising voluntary assisted dying with patients is set to be hotly debated in the only Australian jurisdiction yet to legalise the end-of-life choice for the terminally ill.

Assisted dying legislation has been tabled in the Northern Territory parliament, with the bill expected to pass on a conscience vote following debate from Tuesday.

The territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to make voluntary euthanasia legal in 1995, but the laws were quickly overturned by the Howard government.

All six states and the ACT have since passed their own laws allowing it.

The federal veto was only lifted in 2022, restoring the NT's right to make its own assisted dying laws and setting the stage for a second attempt.

Under the bill only people with 12 months or less to live would have access to assisted dying.

But there is opposition to the 12‑month prognosis rule and a so‑called gag clause that stops doctors from raising voluntary assisted dying with patients.

The Labor opposition has confirmed it will push for the gag rule and the prognosis time frame to be cut from the bill.

The Australian Medical Association NT also wants the gag rule and prognosis time frame removed from the bill.

President John Zorbas said the gag clause undermined the doctor-patient relationship.

"Legislating what a doctor can and cannot discuss when a patient is facing the end of their life is an unacceptable intrusion into clinical practice," he said in a statement on Monday.

The 12-month terminal prognosis requirement failed to reflect the clinical realities of end-of-life care, he said.

"It will inevitably lock out patients whose specific disease trajectory is difficult to predict with exact certainty, but who will continue to experience intolerable suffering."

Several MPs, including Country Liberal Party government members, are putting forward amendments to the bill ahead of the conscience vote.