00:00Megan Pickering is not terminally ill.
00:05But due to an autoimmune disease that stops her breathing,
00:08she knows what it's like to be on death's door.
00:11I'm fully conscious when this happens.
00:13I can hear the machines beeping.
00:16I can hear people's concerns.
00:18I can feel the lack of oxygen giving me a sort of brain fog feeling.
00:24And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.
00:27This experience, and also watching her stepfather die slowly
00:31without access to voluntary assisted dying,
00:33has made her a fierce advocate for the practice.
00:36I would hate to think of my life ending in that way
00:40where I had no control and difficulty breathing
00:44and couldn't communicate because it's a horrible position to be put into.
00:49Now, the NT is the only Australian jurisdiction
00:52where the practice hasn't been legislated.
00:55In 2025, the debate around voluntary assisted dying
00:58looks somewhat different to how it did in the 1990s.
01:01The Australian Medical Association, one of the primary opponents
01:04of the bill in 1995, has since changed its tune on the matter.
01:08Religious opposition to the practice, meanwhile, has remained steadfast.
01:12That value in itself to me is not an ethical way to go.
01:16Others who have a contrary opinion, I am not going to start condemning them,
01:21but I disagree with them, and for good reasons.
01:24Dr Devaki Monani sat on the expert advisory panel
01:28tasked with consulting communities about the practice less than two years ago.
01:32People came up to me after the session and said,
01:34look, I'm Christian, and VAD is at crossroads with my personal beliefs.
01:39And as a Christian, I wouldn't want myself or my family members to be accessing VAD.
01:44And I guess that was really the elephant in the room.
01:48More recently, a motion brought by independent politician Justine Davis
01:52prompted the government to refer the matter to a parliamentary committee.
01:56That committee will now spend until the end of September
01:59going out and consulting with Territorians,
02:02but in particular in those regional and remote areas.
02:05But some advocates fear there's a lack of commitment from the current government.
02:09Overwhelming numbers of Australians and Northern Territorians
02:12have shown support for the development of this legislation.
02:15And I think that it's time that the government of the Northern Territory
02:19listen to what the people want.
02:21A nervous wait on a matter of life and death.
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