In Western Australia, the Guardianship and Administration Act (the GA Act) provides guidance for health professionals when making treatment decisions, particularly in relation to palliative care.
This blog post explores the circumstances under which a health professional may lawfully act in relation to palliative care, despite it hastening the death of the patient, under the GA Act.
I rely on extracts from the legislation and provide references to the relevant sections throughout the article.
Valid Treatment Decisions: Palliative Care and Hastening Death
Section 110ZL of the GA Act provides guidance on the validity of certain treatment decisions made by health professionals.
According to this section, if a health professional:
(a) commences or continues palliative care in relation to a patient; or
(b) does not commence or discontinues any treatment of a patient,
in accordance with a treatment decision that is:
(c) in an advance health directive made by the patient; or
(d) made by the patient’s guardian or enduring guardian or the person responsible for the patient under section 110ZD,
the health professional is considered to have done so in accordance with a valid treatment decision, even if an effect of doing so is to hasten the death of the patient.
Palliative Care Defined
To better understand the context of Section 110ZL, it is important to know what palliative care entails.
According to Section 3(1) of the GA Act, palliative care is defined as a medical, surgical, or nursing procedure directed at relieving a person's pain, discomfort, or distress, but does not include a life-sustaining measure.
Treatment Decisions and Advance Health Directives
Section 110ZL of the GA Act provides that the health professional's actions are considered valid when they act according to a treatment decision:
specified in an advance health directive or
made by the patient's guardian or enduring guardian or
made by the person responsible for the patient under section 110ZD.
An advance health directive, as defined in Section 3(1), refers to a directive made under Part 9B of the GA Act or an instrument recognised as such under section 110ZA.
An enduring guardian, as mentioned in Section 3(1), is the person appointed under an enduring power of guardianship or the persons who are joint enduring guardians under an enduring power of guardianship, including a substitute enduring guardian.
A person responsible for a patient under section 110ZD is explained here.
Key Take-Aways
In summary, under the GA Act, a health professional in Western Australia may lawfully act in relation to palliative care, even if it hastens the death of the patient, as long as the health professional acts in accordance with a valid treatment decision.
This decision must be either specified in an advance health directive made by the patient or made by the patient's guardian or enduring guardian.