Calls have been made for an inquiry into Western Australia’s ‘assisted dying’ laws after the state has seen a 243% increase in cases of euthanasia over a four-year period.
The state has been called the “euthanasia death capital of Australia” after the new annual report, published today, revealed that 2.9% of deaths are now caused by euthanasia or assisted suicide, the highest proportion for any state in Australia and one of the highest assisted death rates in the world, which, at its fifth full reporting year, is second only to Canada when it was five years into the assisted suicide law operating there.
In the report, the outgoing Chair of the Western Australian Voluntary Assisted Dying Board, Dr Scott Blackwell, acknowledged that activity across the assisted death service was “more than 10 times higher than predicted at implementation”.
Second highest proportion in the world at year five
The data in the report covers the fifth year of the law operating in Western Australia. A review of euthanasia and assisted suicide laws globally, comparing the proportion of assisted deaths at year five of the operation of the laws, shows that the proportion in Western Australia is the second highest in the world at year five.
The data shows that only Canada, widely regarded as having one of the most extreme assisted death laws in the world, had a higher proportion at year five of the operation of its law. The 2.9% of deaths in Western Australia at year five is just behind where Canada was at year five, with 3.2% of all deaths caused by assisted suicide or euthanasia.
The annual report for Western Australia for the year 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 shows there were a total of 541 deaths by euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2025-26, an increase of 182% from 2021-22, when there were 192 such deaths.
Of these, there were 508 cases of euthanasia during this time period, compared with 147 cases for the same time period in 2021-22, the first year the law was in operation. The remaining 33 cases were assisted suicide.
Data suggests ‘doctor shopping’ could be happening in significant numbers
More than a quarter, 333 (26.7%), of patients who made an initial request for assisted suicide or euthanasia in 2025-26 made more than one First Request.
The report states that multiple requests can occur when a “practitioner refused a patient’s First Request and the patient made a First Request to another medical practitioner”, raising concerns about ‘doctor shopping’.
This data has prompted calls for Western Australia’s Health Minister, Meredith Hammat, to investigate potential doctor shopping as part of an urgent inquiry into Western Australia’s assisted suicide system (see comment at end).
Despite concerns, Board calls for expansion of the law
Despite the data showing surging assisted death numbers and issues with the operation of the law in Western Australia, the board overseeing the operation of the law, whose membership includes several people who have previously advocated for the introduction of assisted death laws, has called for the further removal and expansion of the law in Western Australia.
In the 2025–26 annual report, Western Australia’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Board recommended reviewing the existing requirement that patients must be expected to die within six months, or 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions, including consideration of extending or removing these time-to-death limits.
The Board also recommended amending Commonwealth legislation to remove restrictions affecting the provision of assisted suicide and euthanasia services through telehealth and the electronic transmission of prescriptions for lethal substances.
Nine-day waiting period “safeguard” being bypassed in one in four cases
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 specifies a designated waiting period of nine days between the First Request and Final Request.
Since legalisation in July 2021, the statutory nine-day waiting period between a patient’s First Request and Final Request has been waived in 648 cases (26% of Final Requests), allowing patients to make their Final Request before the waiting period had elapsed.
In 2025-26, the proportion of Final Requests made before the end of the nine-day designated waiting period rose to 29.1%, with 227 Final Requests made within the nine-day period, the highest annual proportion since legalisation.
In one case in 2025-26, a patient died by assisted suicide or euthanasia just one day after making their First Request.
A significant proportion of patients cite reasons other than concern about inadequate pain control as the reason for requesting an assisted death
At first assessment, almost one in three patients, 32.0%, cited being a burden on family, friends or caregivers, or concern about becoming a burden, as a reason for requesting an assisted death.
Almost three-quarters of patients, 706 (74.8%), cited being less able to engage in activities that made life enjoyable, or concern about this, as a reason for seeking assisted suicide or euthanasia. This was the most commonly reported reason.
A further 557 patients (59.0%) cited losing autonomy, or concern about it, while 539 (57.1%) cited loss of dignity, or concern about it.
Additionally, 39.7% cited inadequate pain control, or concern about it.
Increase in number of patients not receiving palliative care
Over the course of just a year, the number of applicants for assisted suicide and euthanasia who were not accessing palliative care at the time of their First Assessment increased from 124 in 2024-25 to 167 in 2025-26, an increase of over 34%.
Of these, 154 had not received any palliative care in the preceding 12 months.
Patients who did not speak English at all or not well did not receive assistance from an interpreter
Six patients found eligible for assisted suicide or euthanasia in 2025–26 were recorded as speaking English either not at all or not well, while a further 80 were recorded as speaking English well rather than very well.
However, fewer than five eligible patients received assistance from an interpreter during their First Assessment.
Even if all patients who received interpreter assistance were among the six with the lowest English proficiency, at least two of those six patients did not receive interpreter assistance during their First Assessment.
Nine practitioners responsible for the majority of accepted first requests
Just nine practitioners were responsible for accepting 578 First Requests for assisted suicide or euthanasia in 2025-26, accounting for 51.6% of all accepted First Requests.
In addition, 21 practitioners accepted a First Request despite not having completed the Western Australian Voluntary Assisted Dying Approved Training at the time of accepting the request. These practitioners also did not complete the training during the reporting period.
Under WA Health’s payment schedule, eligible practitioners can claim $478.50 for each completed First Assessment. In 2025–26, just eight practitioners conducted 542 First Assessments, representing 50.3% of all assessments that year. If all 542 assessments were eligible for payment, these would attract $259,347 in fees, averaging approximately $32,418 per practitioner.
Further payments bring the total available to a coordinating practitioner to $1,914 per patient where they complete the subsequent stages and personally administer the lethal substance.
No First Assessments identified a patient as failing to be acting voluntarily and without coercion
Not a single one of the 1,077 First Assessments conducted in 2025–26 identified a patient as failing the requirement to be acting voluntarily and without coercion. In every assessment, the patient was deemed to satisfy this requirement, raising questions about how effectively potential coercion is being identified during the assessment process.
In 2025-26, 11 patients aged between 18 and 39 were found eligible for assisted suicide or euthanasia. Since legalisation in July 2021, a total of 36 eligible assessments have involved patients in this youngest reported age category.
Since 2021, when the state began ending the lives of some of its own citizens by assisting in their suicides and by euthanasia, to the end of June this year, a total of 1,764 people have ended their lives by assisted suicide and euthanasia in Western Australia.
Of the 541 deaths in 2025-26, 33 (6.10%) were instances of assisted suicide, where the person who wishes to die ingests or otherwise takes the lethal substance themselves, and 508 (93.80%) were instances of euthanasia, where a medical practitioner administers the lethal substance to the patient to end their life.
In one case involving euthanasia by oral ingestion or administration through a feeding tube, a patient took one hour and nine minutes to die after the lethal substance was administered.
Nine complications were reported during euthanasia procedures in 2025-26, including patients coughing or gasping, vomiting or regurgitating, and problems involving intravenous lines used to administer the lethal substances. All nine patients died following administration, meaning there were complications in 1.8% of cases of euthanasia.
No data on complications during assisted suicides collected
The Board does not collect data on complications during assisted suicides where patients administer the lethal substances themselves. It also does not collect information about how long these patients take to die or where the lethal substance is administered.
In Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997, annual complication rates with assisted deaths have been as high as 14.8%. Patients are reported to have experienced difficulty swallowing, drug regurgitation, and seizures, and have even regained consciousness after ingesting the ‘lethal’ drugs. Other complications include vomiting, and death taking many hours, including up to 137 hours (over 5 days).
In 2025-26, the Board made 255 referrals to the Director General of the Western Australian Department of Health concerning the timeliness of statutory forms submitted under the assisted suicide and euthanasia system. A further referral concerned the failure to submit a Practitioner Administration Form following a euthanasia procedure. The Board also referred two matters for further investigation concerning possible contraventions of the law.
Dr Calum Miller, medical doctor and research associate, said “Western Australia has become the euthanasia death capital of Australia; it really is totally out of control. It is heartbreaking to see such a number and proportion of people wanting to end their lives through assisted suicide or euthanasia”.
“The report records an assisted death just one day after a first request. That is an extraordinarily short time for a process that ends a person’s life. The public deserves to know how doctors established that the request was settled and voluntary, and that the person had a meaningful opportunity to consider the care and support available to them”.
Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan, Chief Executive of Right To Life, said “We are calling on Western Australia’s Health Minister, Meredith Hammat, to commission an urgent inquiry into Western Australia’s assisted suicide and euthanasia system, including potential doctor shopping and whether claimed safeguards in current legislation are protecting vulnerable people in practice”.
“Euthanasia deaths in Western Australia have risen by 243% in just four years, with 2.92% of deaths now caused by euthanasia or assisted suicide. This is the highest proportion for any state in Australia and one of the highest assisted death rates in the world at its fifth full reporting year, second only to where Canada was five years into the assisted suicide law operating there”.
“This will likely get much worse if the law is expanded and further safeguards are removed in Western Australia, as is being demanded by assisted death campaigners and astonishingly by the very Committee tasked with ensuring the law and its purported safeguards operate properly”.
