She is part of the chorus of health practitioners who want video conferencing, or Telehealth, to be part of the process of voluntary assisted dying. But doctors cannot talk to patients about voluntary assisted dying by any electronic means under threat of a $300,000 fine, thanks to a 20-year-old law criminalising the encouragement of suicide in online chat rooms. It's a routine request, but can take days because the communications ban encapsulates all voluntary assisted dying prescriptions, which must be mailed or delivered by hand. Years-old debate on Telehealth and voluntary assisted dying blew open in July when Labor let its members off the leash during its national conference. Telehealth guidelines are strong enough for voluntary assisted dying to work like any other kind of health care, Dr Swan said.