ABOUT

We are families who refused to accept "no."

Right2Choose is a campaign built by Australians whose lives were changed when the medical system told a loved one there was nothing more to be done.

Some of us were told the surgery our family member needed was too risky. Some of us watched the people we love board planes to other countries because Australia would not allow them the chance to fight. Some of us lost them anyway. All of us learned the same thing: in this country, when you are dying, the system decides what you are allowed to try.

We started Right2Choose because that is wrong, and because nobody else was saying so.

The problem

Australians with terminal illness are routinely denied access to high-risk surgery, even when:

they are competent adults capable of giving informed consent,
a qualified surgeon is willing to operate, and
the procedure has a rational clinical basis.

The denial does not come from the patient. It comes from regulators, hospital committees, insurers, and disciplinary tribunals that have decided, on the patient's behalf, that the risk is not worth taking.

This is happening at the same time Australia has legalised Voluntary Assisted Dying. The same competent adult who is allowed to choose to end their life is not allowed to choose surgery that might extend it. That contradiction is the heart of what Right2Choose is fighting to fix.

What we want

Three things, in plain language:

Public recognition. That terminal patients have a moral right to decide what risks they take with their own bodies. That a surgeon who operates on a willing, informed patient is not reckless. That medical exile is not a solution; it is a national failure.

A legal precedent. A High Court ruling that competent adults have a legally protected right to elect high-risk surgery when fully informed. We are working with legal advisors to build the test case that gets us there.

A new framework. A regulated pathway, modelled on Voluntary Assisted Dying safeguards and the United States' federal Right to Try Act, that allows last-chance surgery to happen safely and lawfully in Australia. We call this Surgical Innovation Trials.

The full framework is set out in our research library.

Who we are

Right2Choose is run by Australian families and supporters. We are not a registered charity. We are not funded by any organisation. We are not affiliated with any political party.

We are building a community of those who share our view that the current system is broken.

How to help

If your family has been affected, we want to hear from you. Stories are how this campaign earns the right to be heard. [Submit your story].

If you are a journalist, our press contact is [this e mail]. We can put you in touch with families willing to speak on the record.

If you are a clinician, lawyer, ethicist, or policy professional who wants to support the work, [link to contact form or email].

If you want to follow what we publish, our research library is updated regularly. [Link to Library]

What we are not

We are not anti-doctor. The vast majority of Australian clinicians do extraordinary work under significant institutional pressure. The problem is not them.

We are not anti-regulation. Patients deserve protection from genuine misconduct. The problem is regulation that has stopped distinguishing between recklessness and consented risk.

We are not asking for unsafe surgery. We are asking for surgery that competent adults have chosen, surgeons are willing to perform, and clinical evidence can defend.