Why making voluntary assisted dying legal best respects both sides of this debate

Empirical matters

Of course, the VAD debate itself is not, and cannot be, decided on personal conscience alone: the State has an interest in protecting vulnerable people from accessing VAD when they shouldn't (they are coerced, for example).

However, whether vulnerable people would access VAD by coercion is not a personal conscience matter. It is an empirical one. It is to do with whether we can provide adequate safeguards.

It is a category mistake to regard whether safeguards can be made adequate as a matter of personal conscience.

Given the default position is that VAD should be legal, parliaments and case law bear the responsibility of thoroughly investigating these empirical questions. When the Queensland Law Reform Commission examines VAD, it should be these empirical questions that take centre stage.