Lethal medication sourced for Victoria’s voluntary euthanasia scheme

Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital will have sole responsibility for importing, preparing and supplying all the required drugs for the lethal medication to be used by Victoria’s first voluntary euthanasia patients.

Acting Health Minister Martin Foley said having just one hospital involved boosted the safety of the program.

The medication needed to make the lethal dose is already legal in Australia, and there will be no need to import the banned euthanasia drug pentobarbital.

“The Alfred is one of Victoria’s leading hospitals. Having a single point of access for voluntary assisted dying is just one of the ways we’re making sure the model is the safest and most conservative in the world,” Mr Foley said.

Authorities made the decision to have a single point of access for the euthanasia drug, rather than having it dispensed from multiple pharmacies, to ensure patients are provided with consistent information, and that unused medications are returned and destroyed.

The news marks a significant milestone for the historic voluntary assisted dying scheme, which from June 19 will give gravely ill Victorians help to end their lives, if their request is approved.

The composition of the lethal drug has for some time been the subject of discussion and speculation. One of the options under consideration was attempting to import the euthanasia drug pentobarbital (better known as Nembutal), though it’s banned for human use in Australia.

The alternative scenario was to use a concoction of legal medication, possibly taken in powder form and mixed with a drink.

The Alfred’s pharmacy director Professor Michael Dooley this week announced that the medications that had been sourced were already legal in Australia.

He said the dose would usually be a standard amount, and there would be different medications used depending on whether the patient was able to swallow or inject the drug.

“We have been able to secure access for the medications that we’ll need and the medications that are the most appropriate for voluntary assisted dying,” he said.

Professor Dooley declined to provide further detail about the medication, though The Age understands the drug used will primarily be a type of sedative not commonly prescribed by doctors in Australia and taken in liquid form.

A small team of pharmacists operating out of The Alfred will be appointed to travel around the state to dispense the medication to patients, and provide them with information they need should they choose to take it.

“People do not have expertise in this space and expecting [the dispensing service] to be delivered across Victoria in many of the hundreds and hundreds of pharmacies wouldn’t necessarily be possible,” Professor Dooley said.

Medical practitioners have the right to object to participating in the scheme, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia had previously warned that they did not wish to see any gravely-ill Victorians travelling around the state, looking for a pharmacy to source the euthanasia drugs.

The specialised pharmacy service will report back to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Betty King, QC.

Mr Foley said that all the guidelines were now in place for the voluntary assisted dying scheme to begin in June.

The laws will give adults who have decision-making capacity and are suffering with a terminal illness likely to be fatal within six months access to the lethal medication, which they will mostly take themselves.

There is a range of strict eligibility criteria to access the scheme, including that two doctors would have to conduct favourable assessments of a person’s eligibility, and a person has to make three separate requests to end their life, after initiating the process themselves.

Under certain circumstances, doctors will be able to administer the medication if the patient is unable to do so themselves.