Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying Act: navigating the section 8 gag clause

Section 8 is an unwarranted infringement on communication between health practitioners and their patients

In November 2017, the state of Victoria passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic), legalising a model of voluntary physician‐assisted death for adults at the end of life who meet a number of criteria, including rigorously assessed diagnostic and prognostic requirements. The Act came into effect on 19 June 2019. Its implementation raises a host of challenges.1 Here we focus on one aspect of the new law that has been largely overlooked in ethico‐legal debates thus far — the section 8 gag clause.