Heartbroken daughter’s bid to legalise telehealth for voluntary assisted dying

Exclusive: Terry Hargreaves was a man who spent his life in motion. 

Born in England, he emigrated to Australia in the 1960s to play soccer professionally, later coaching for Seaford United and passing his deep love for the game to his three grandchildren. 

Even when facing a 13-year battle with prostate cancer, Terry was all action; just a week before he was hospitalised in late 2024, he was building a deck with his son.

But when his health took a sudden downturn, the system designed to give him a compassionate choice at the end of his life completely failed him, his daughter Emma Hargreaves says.

Despite having made it clear to his family that he wished to access Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD), Terry died without that choice because of a federal law that treats medical telehealth consultations for dying patients as a criminal offence.

Now, Emma has launched a federal parliamentary petition calling for change, arguing that Australia’s current laws create a cruel “postcode lottery” for terminal patients.

‘Too sick to jump in the car’

When Terry suddenly declined while participating in a clinical trial, Emma flew down to Victoria to get him out of the hospital he despised. 

He was placed in hospice care at home, a weak and exhausted shadow of the vibrant man who had built ziplines and dune buggy tracks for his grandkids.

He was legally eligible for VAD, but navigating the strict approval process required three separate appointments, including one with a specialist. 

Because it was mid-December, a critical shortage of available doctors over the holiday period compounded their struggle. 

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On December 27, Emma was told an oncologist was available - but the appointment had to be strictly in person in East Melbourne, an hour’s drive away.

“There was no way he could move,” Emma said. 

“We had a hospital bed in the home. He was so weak and exhausted from not eating, and generally feeling awful. The idea of getting him from a carpark to the waiting rooms was simply not possible.”

“I couldn’t quite believe it,” Emma said of the moment she found out her Dad could not use telehealth to access VAD.

“Given how common telehealth is in healthcare now, it just didn’t make sense to me.”

While the barrier was exponentially worse for those living deeper in rural and regional areas, some dying patients were simply too sick to make in-person appointments no matter where they lived, Emma said.

“Distance does play a huge part, and I feel for regional people who have to travel multiple hours,” Emma said. 

“But even if it had been five minutes around the corner, Dad was too ill.

For four weeks, Emma and her mother watched Terry suffer in deep distress. 

“He had a lot of anxiety that it was going to go on for weeks or months, and he just couldn’t understand why we weren’t helping him,” she said. 

He was eventually moved to a palliative care unit, where he died a day later.

Australia an outlier on telehealth 

The barrier preventing Terry - and thousands of regional Australians - from accessing VAD at home is a conflict between state and federal legislation. 

While all six Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory have legalised VAD, the federal Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) makes it a crime to use a “carriage service” (such as a phone call, video link, or email) to counsel or incite suicide.

In 2023, retired Victorian GP Nick Carr - one of the state’s first VAD-trained doctors - and advocacy group Dying with Dignity took legal action against the then attorney-general in the Federal Court over the telehealth ban.

The case was unsuccessful, with the Federal Court finding that using telehealth for VAD could be viewed as encouraging suicide, a criminal offence.  

According to Dr Helen Haydon, a researcher at the University of Queensland (UQ), this leaves Australia completely isolated on the global stage.

“Australia is the only country in the world with legislation preventing telehealth from being used for VAD,” Dr Haydon said.

The ban existed despite global evidence showing the benefits of telehealth far outweigh the risks, she added.

“Because of the legal discrepancies, healthcare providers fear prosecution for even discussing VAD with patients through telehealth services. 

“Yet it is health professionals who hear firsthand from eligible patients the distress of not having control over how, when, and with whom they die.”

New data highlights how rapidly the demand for this healthcare option is growing. 

VAD activity increased by 40 percent nationwide in 2024–25, and now accounts for roughly 2 per of all deaths nationally—including 5 per cent of all cancer deaths and one in three motor neurone disease deaths.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has said it supports patient-centred decisions in end-of-life care.

Dr Anita Muñoz, Chair of RACGP Victoria, recently told newsGP that telehealth should have a place with the VAD scheme.

“We need to recognise that if we can use telehealth for all other forms of medicine, it should not be excluded,” Dr Muñoz said.

“Like all other forms of telehealth, the clinician needs to make sure that the person has the appropriate privacy and they’re able to speak their mind freely.”

The fight for change

Emma Hargreaves’ parliamentary petition requests that the House of Representatives amend the criminal code to exempt legally approved voluntary assisted dying from the suicide statutes.

“My dad had a remarkable way of facing life with humour, and death was no exception,” Emma said. 

“He deserved a better death. Behind all of this, it’s real people, with real families, and we shouldn’t be making things harder for them when they are at the most vulnerable time of their lives.”

A spokesperson for the Albanese Government said Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and Health Minister Mark Butler were continuing to consider these issues in consultation with the states and territories.

“Voluntary assisted dying is a very sensitive and personal issue,” the Government spokesperson said. 

“The Albanese Government understands there are a range of complex issues arising out of the interaction between Commonwealth legislation and state and territory VAD schemes.