The number of people dying by euthanasia and assisted suicide in Queensland, Australia continues to rise sharply, with new figures showing 1,072 deaths under the state’s Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) law between July 2024 and June 2025. That marks a significant increase from 793 deaths the previous year and highlights growing concerns about the rapid expansion of state-sanctioned killing.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide became legal in Queensland on 1 January 2023 under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021. In its first six months, 245 people died under the law, a figure that has since risen each year. By 2024–25, euthanasia accounted for nearly three per cent of all deaths in the state, with 779 cases involving lethal injection by a clinician and 293 involving self-administered drugs.
The scale of the increase is striking. Between July and September 2024 alone, 241 people died under the Act, a rate 26 per cent higher than the previous year. By April to June 2025, roughly one in 35 deaths in Queensland involved either euthanasia or assisted suicide. Experts say Queensland’s broader eligibility criteria, which include anyone expected to die within 12 months, may help explain the higher rates compared with other states, where the limit is usually six months.
Concerns are also growing over how euthanasia is being delivered. Registered nurses are permitted to administer lethal substances, and dozens have now received training to do so. In 2024–25, 35 nurses and 51 doctors directly ended patients’ lives, with almost half of those professionals involved in five or more cases. Many think it strange that a small group of clinicians are responsible for carrying out all the life-ending procedures.
The law’s safeguards are also being questioned. The usual nine-day waiting period between a first and final request can be waived, and in 2023–24 it was bypassed in more than a third of cases. Patients can also qualify by refusing treatment, meaning those with otherwise manageable conditions may access euthanasia.
There are fears too over safety and transparency. The government’s reporting requirements exclude data on complications or the time between drug administration and death. In one case under investigation, a man reportedly used lethal drugs prescribed to his late wife to kill himself.
Queensland’s approach normalises the intentional ending of life and is full of holes. SPUC says now, and always, there will always be a way around safeguards. No assisted suicide legislation is safe.
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