@Susan60 @sister_ratched here, fwiw. Quote

As soon as the ACT's new voluntary assisted dying laws were implemented in early November, Hans van der Zendt called Canberra Hospital and booked into his GP.

"I said to the doctor, 'I just want to have assisted dying, is that possible?'" Mr van der Zendt said.

His wife was sitting beside him.

"What are you talking about?" she asked her husband.

She was shocked because besides type 2 diabetes, the 80-year-old is perfectly healthy in body and mind.

Only recently retired, Mr van der Zendt goes to the gym several times a week, has an active social life and published his debut book, Tulips in the Capital, this year.

He is a father of four and grandfather of six.

"Basically, I feel my life is finished, I've done what I have to do," he said.

But Mr van der Zendt is not suicidal and predicts he has another decade to live.

He just wants his family to administer assisted dying medication if he "loses his marbles".

"I don't want to be a burden to the society, I don't want to be burden to the family," Mr van der Zendt said.

"We have too many old people sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

"I feel if you're 80 and over, if you're a clear state of mind and you want voluntary assisted dying, put it on record."

In the ACT, people can access voluntary assisted dying if they have an advanced and progressive medical condition that is expected to cause death and is causing intolerable suffering.

The person must have decision-making capacity until the very end.

Some pro-euthanasia groups want to allow people access to assisted dying after they lose mental capacity if they have given prior consent.

Exit International ACT branch chapter leader David Swanton said advance care directives and power of attorney arrangements already allow someone else to make medical decisions for the incapacitated.

"You can have someone make a decision to take you off life support. Why can't they extend it to voluntary assisted dying as well?" he said.

"People suffering unbearably but not near the end of life should be able to access it as well. It's an issue for every person, and I don't want a doctor telling me that I can't have voluntary assisted dying because I'm not sick enough."

Mr Swanton said members of his Exit chapter have suicided rather than wait for the ACT legislation be implemented out of fear they would not be eligible.

"Though the Act says it respects individual autonomy, it does not," he said.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated nearly half of Australians 90 and older had dementia in 2025.

A third of people surveyed for 2023 University of Newcastle research were afraid of being demented, the second most feared disease behind cancer.

Mr van der Zendt migrated to Canberra from Holland.

The Netherlands has liberal assisted dying laws, and Mr van der Zendt said it is also easy to access assisted dying medication outside the formal channels.

"Some people are not suicidal, they just want to sleep in and not wake up," Mr van der Zendt said.

"Let's have one big party and it's over. It's beautiful. It's not the same thing as being suicidal."

Along with Mr Stanton, he believes access to the medication in the ACT should require consent from a doctor to stop it being used for suicide.

The ACT government plans to have further community consultation on the voluntary assisted dying laws in 2026.

On November 3, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the government was looking at how other countries deal with loss of capacity.

"There are a range of things that we would need to think through about the different personal circumstances that people might find," she said.

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#VAD