Carr v Attorney-General [2023] FCA 1500
Federal law makes it an offence to use a carriage service to assist someone to commit ‘suicide’5. Victoria allows doctors to prescribe a ‘voluntary assisted dying substance’ to certain persons6. It was argued that a doctor using a carriage service in this context commits no offence, as ‘suicide’ does not extend to taking one’s own life ‘in exercise of a legal right to do so’. This was rejected by Abraham J.
Nothing indicated ‘suicide’ in the federal law took other than its ordinary meaning – ‘the intentional taking of one’s own life’7. It followed, therefore, that the Victorian provisions were in ‘direct inconsistency’ with the federal law and invalid to that extent.
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Footnotes:
5 s 474.29A of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
6 s 57(a) of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic).