Labor national conference backs use of telehealth in voluntary assisted dying care

Australia's Labor party has written support for telehealth in voluntary assisted dying care into its platform, The Conversation reports. The amendment, passed on a voice vote at the party's national conference on Friday, was the gathering's first contested vote. Backers argued that federal criminal code provisions, drafted long before telehealth was routine, leave doctors facing criminal risk for holding end-of-life conversations by phone or video rather than in person, a burden that falls hardest on gravely ill patients in regional and remote areas. Opponents countered that such care demands compassion and careful listening that telehealth cannot fully provide. Afterward, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland moved that the issue can be freely debated but any decision is not binding on party members, and cabinet minister Don Farrell noted that a parliamentary vote on the matter would be a conscience vote.

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