« Go to related Bill

Supplementary Order Paper No 211

No 211

House of Representatives

Supplementary Order Paper

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

End of Life Choice Bill

Proposed amendment

Simeon Brown, in Committee, to move the following amendment:

Clause 16

In clause 16, after subclause (6) (page 12, line 2), insert:

(7)

A legal witness, independent of both the patient and the attending medical practitioner, must be present at the point of the administration of medication, and must—

(a)

make their own record of proceedings of decisions made under this section; and

(b)

within 14 working days of the person’s death, send the registrar a copy of the record made under paragraph (a).

Explanatory note

This Supplementary Order Paper amends the End of Life Choice Bill. It creates a requirement for an independent legal witness to be present at the administering of medication, who must make their own record of proceedings and send this record to the registrar.

The registrar is already intended to receive a report from the attending medical practitioner under clause 17. This further record of proceedings would assist in creating a more rigorous standard of record-keeping and somewhat reduce the probability of undue deaths.