The number of people who have ended their lives by euthanasia or assisted suicide in Queensland has increased by over 35% for the year 2024-2025 compared with the previous year.
According to the ‘Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board Annual Report’ released earlier this week, over a quarter of people (25.9%) who applied for euthanasia or assisted suicide in Queensland were not accessing palliative care at the time of their first assessment.
Only around 1 in 17 applicants (6%) had a neurological condition, a relatively small proportion, despite the need for people with neurological conditions to access assisted suicide or euthanasia regularly being referred to by campaigners as a key reason for introducing assisted suicide and euthanasia.
From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, a total of 1,072 people ended their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia in Queensland, Australia. Of these people, 293 (27%) died by assisted suicide and 779 (73%) died by euthanasia.
From 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, a total of 793 people ended their lives by assisted suicide and euthanasia. Of these people, 261 (33%) died by assisted suicide and 532 (67%) died by euthanasia.
This means there was a 35.18% increase in euthanasia and assisted suicide from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
The total number of people who have ended their lives in Queensland through this programme since it was introduced in 2023 is now 2,110.
Report published amid concerns about Queensland’s assisted suicide and euthanasia laws
The report has been published amid concerns about the lack of adequate safeguards in Queensland’s assisted suicide and euthanasia law, resulting from several controversial incidents.
Last month, a man from the Gold Coast was accused of illegally supplying lethal drugs to a quadriplegic man so he could end his own life after he had failed to qualify for assisted suicide or euthanasia in Queensland.
According to reports, the 53-year-old, Brett Daniel Taylor, has been charged with aiding in the suicide of quadriplegic David Bedford, 43. Police allege Taylor and two accomplices were involved in an assisted suicide racket that used a charity called ‘Cetacean Compassion Australia Ltd’ as a front to access the veterinary euthanasia drug pentobarbital, doses of which were then given to “vulnerable” people for thousands of dollars.
As part of the probe, police are investigating as many as 20 deaths linked to this “end of life service”.
In 2024, a man in Queensland nearly died after allegedly taking his partner’s lethal drugs for an assisted suicide.
The couple allegedly joined a health worker in drinking shots of alcohol at Gold Coast University Hospital’s ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ (VAD) unit before the woman used lethal drugs to end her life. The man then allegedly took the drugs his partner had just used and nearly died before being resuscitated with Naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, and was admitted to the hospital’s emergency department.
The report released earlier this week references this case, stating, “At the time of the writing of this report, the coronial recommendation is under consideration by Queensland Health”.
The dramatic increase in the number of people in Queensland ending their lives through assisted suicide and euthanasia comes as the Parliament in Westminster debates the assisted suicide Bill.
While the majority of MPs spoke in favour of the Bill (25 spoke in favour, 21 spoke in opposition) at Second Reading in the House of Commons, across both days of Second Reading in the House of Lords, of the 155 Peers who took a stance on the Bill, 104 (67%) spoke in opposition and 51 (33%) spoke in favour.
In a significant win for opponents of the assisted suicide Bill, the House of Lords has approved the establishment of a dedicated select committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals, with the commencement of the Bill’s formal Committee stage being delayed until the select committee has reported.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is tragic to read of the large increase in the number of people in Queensland ending their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia”.
“This huge increase should serve as a stark warning to the UK about the realities of legalising assisted suicide”.
“With the NHS described by our Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, as ‘broken’, and every year, 100,000 people still dying without the palliative care they need, this assisted suicide legislation is a disaster waiting to happen. It should never become law”.
