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Queensland has recorded the world’s highest proportion of assisted deaths at year three, prompting urgent calls for an independent inquiry into safeguards and rising numbers.

Right To Life UK is drawing attention to Queensland’s latest report on assisted suicide and euthanasia, euphemistically called Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD).

The findings showed a 36% increase in induced deaths between 2023–24 and 2025–26.

Since adopting euthanasia in 2023, Queensland recorded 3,192 people taking the assisted suicide and euthanasia path up to June 2026.

This number jumps to 5,190 when including 1,998 people who died after starting the process without administering the poison.

For context, Queensland health records deaths by assisted suicide (self-administration) and euthanasia (“healthcare” administered) separately.

Right to Life UK Calls for Inquiry into Queensland VAD

The annual state government report published in September showed only a 0.9% increase in those whose deaths were induced. Induced deaths between 2024–25 and 2025–26 only increased by 10.

For this time frame, the median age for those who received a first assessment to induce their death was 75, and 81% were aged between 60 and 89.

In total, since 2023, 2,286 people were euthanised, compared to 906 who died by assisted suicide. Only twenty-seven withdrew from the process.

Queensland’s latest report also revealed that of the 380 professionals authorised to induce death, 53% are medical practitioners (200), 47% are nurse practitioners (21) and registered nurses (159).

Drawing attention to the report, Right to Life UK’s CEO, Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan said that the Queensland government must re-examine its commitments to slippery slope safeguards within the legislation.

He said, “We are calling on Queensland’s Health Minister, Tim Nicholls, to commission an urgent independent inquiry into Queensland’s assisted suicide and euthanasia system, including whether claimed safeguards in current legislation are protecting vulnerable people in practice.

“Full-year figures show that assisted deaths accounted for approximately 3% of all deaths in Queensland.

“This is the highest proportion for any state in Australia at year three and the highest proportion of deaths resulting from assisted deaths at year three among all jurisdictions in the world with their own assisted death laws”.

The Right to Life UK boss added, “The proportion of assisted deaths has even outstripped Canada at year three, which is widely regarded as having one of the most extreme assisted death laws in the world.

“This will likely get much worse if the law is expanded and safeguards are removed in Queensland, as is being called for by assisted death campaigners and astonishingly by the very Review Board tasked with ensuring the law and its purported safeguards operate properly”.

The pro-life organisation wasn’t the only group to raise concern.

Both the independently run Spanish Catholic InfoVaticana news site and Australia’s Catholic newspaper, The Catholic Leader (CL), shared that advocates want the induced death — VAD — legislation expanded to include dementia and other medical conditions.

Citing the report, CL said, “In Recommendation 4, the Review Board calls on the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services to facilitate a ‘broad consultation with the public and other stakeholders to determine the desirability and feasibility of amending existing eligibility criteria’”.

Netherlands Greasing the Slippery Slope

While yet to comment on the Queensland report, Haylea Kennedy from Right to Life New South Wales used the Netherlands to hammer home the group’s concerns about expanding access to an induced death.

When noting that the country had registered the first child “killed by lethal injection, legally,” she wrote, “If you are shocked, I need you to ask yourself why, because we really shouldn’t be.”

“In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia. For years, it applied to adults, then to newborns under a new set of guidelines, then to children 12 and older who could request it themselves.”

“But there was a gap. Kids between 1 and 12 considered too young to consent weren’t eligible.”

She said that the gap was closed when the Netherlands expanded access to euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2024.

What this is, Kennedy argued, is a “government deciding that killing a child is an acceptable medical treatment.”

Arguing against referring to this escalation as a slippery slope, she said, “This is worse than that. This is the destination the slope was always built to reach.”

“If this story doesn’t shake you the way it should, that’s not because you’re a bad person. It’s because we’ve all been formed quietly over years to see certain deaths as manageable, medical, and even merciful as long as they are framed the right way.”

Calling for clarity on the issue, Kennedy wrote, “Scripture talks about exactly this pattern: not being shaped by the thinking of the world around us, having our minds genuinely renewed, retrained to see what is actually true, not just what we’ve got used to hearing. Now that’s not a guilt trip; it’s an invitation. Because a desensitised mind doesn’t stay that way forever; it can be renewed.”

The Right to Life NSW spokeswoman stated that fixing this doesn’t start with better laws. It starts, she said, “with us renewing how we think about life at every single stage, womb to old age with no exception.”

Her concerns are just as relevant as Right to Life UK’s.

Expanding VAD in Australia

For example, in a 22 October post on X, Kennedy spotlighted a Senate defeat for conscientious objection that barely hit news feeds.

Aged care homes won’t get the right to say no to assisted dying after the Australian Senate voted down a One Nation proposal that would have let them opt out.

In April, Kennedy also spoke out against expanding assisted suicide and euthanasia through telehealth.

The program, which grew during COVID in 2020, is now permanent and allows a person to consult a healthcare provider by phone or video call.

These services, according to the Australian Government, can include diagnosis, treatment (prescriptions) and prevention.

Kennedy said that the University of Queensland’s research suggests extending those services to include assisted suicide and euthanasia.

She said, “They are arguing that this would improve access, especially for people in rural areas. They say the benefits outweigh the risks. They say that this is about healthcare equity, and they say that video calls can be just as effective as in-person assessments.”

Questioning the proposals, Kennedy asked whether this was truly healthcare.

A third Australian has taken VAD drugs prescribed for their partner. Two have died.

A Queensland coroner warned this would happen. His main recommendation still hasn’t been adopted anywhere.

What grieving families need is care. https://t.co/Z5SDdc8HDr https://t.co/RkDxeEO7Ur

— Right To Life (@righttolifensw) October 14, 2026

What she said next aligns perfectly with Right to Life UK’s calls for a review:

“We were told,” Kennedy argued, “that this would be tightly controlled, careful, in person and protected. What happened to the safeguards that we were promised? Now those same protections are being pushed aside and being replaced with consultations over a screen, and life-ending drugs are potentially being delivered or picked up locally.

“Even if the risks are debated, they are not being safeguarded. The direction is very clear. Access is expanding as the barriers are being lowered.”

Kennedy said, “This isn’t about policy. It’s about our culture. Even if laws change, even if systems expand, the real issue is the human heart.

“Laws don’t change hearts. Systems don’t change values,” she concluded.

“If we want to see real change, we need to change hearts and minds. We need to ask whether what we are doing is truly caring for people or are we failing them? Because how we value life shapes the minds and the hearts of the next generation.”

Governing all that Haylea gets right here is this: When appealing to Romans 12:2, we must remember that we’re called to transformation by the renewing of our minds, not the emptying of them.

That’s the big difference between Christianity and Nihilism, and on this issue it’s very much not just about battling an existential crisis over life or death. It’s about how much death teaches us to value life and how much suffering summons us to fight for it.

As Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

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Image: Alexander Grey on Unsplash.