The Candles for Compassion vigil drew 500 supporters to Parliament House in Adelaide as MPs voted decisively to progress the Voluntary Assisted Dying bill to its final reading.

Is it politically wise to support voluntary assisted dying laws?

As a palliative medicine doctor of 37 years, I believe South Australia's proposed voluntary assisted dying law is compassionate, safe and an essential choice for dying patients.

The focus of Queensland's draft VAD bill is on "designing optimal law, rather than simply adopting another state’s law because it happened to be passed first", write Professors Lindy Wilmott and Ben White.

South Australia's Upper House has passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying bill 14 votes to 7. It now heads to the Lower House for the final vote.

New research shows more than 4 in 5 (83%) South Australians want the state to legislate Voluntary Assisted Dying laws based on the model that has already been implemented in Victoria.

In a landmark step, Tasmania has become the third Australian state to legalise voluntary assisted dying for the terminally ill.

Voluntary assisted dying opponents say Victoria’s suicide rate has gone up and the assisted dying law is to blame. But their claims are demonstrably wrong, and reveal the desperate lengths to which they will go to try and stop VAD law reform.

The NT Attorney General and ACT Human Rights Minister warn federal politicians that Territories' inability to legislate on voluntary assisted dying could violate international human rights obligations. 

The latest independent report from the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board confirms the Victorian VAD law continues to offer 'genuine, compassionate choice' to terminally ill people, despite constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.