X-Message-Number: 6422
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 05:33:57 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia law

>From The Age, Melbourne, July 1

LET ME DIE, PLEADS WALKING DEAD MAN

Forces are mounting against the Northern Territory's landmark voluntary
euthanasia law, but 65-year-old Mr Max Bell today starts the process that
would make him the first person in the world to die using euthanasia
legislation. Mr Bell's Darwin doctor, Mr Philip Nitschke, will this morning
sign a declaration confirming that Mr Bell is terminally ill, that his
illness is causing severe pain and suffering, and that he has requested
medical assistance to die. The besieged Northern Territory's Rights of the
Terminally Ill Act is technically operational today, and it will be the
first such declaration to be signed anywhere in the world. Mr Bell, a
retired taxi driver from Broken Hill, was told he had terminal stomach
cancer a year ago. He had most of his stomach removed in the Broken Hill
Hospital on 4 July last year. Doctors told him he had 12 to 18 months to
live. In the past months, he has declined rapidly and is now very frail. He
has trouble eating and has lost almost 20 kilograms in the past 10 weeks.
His ankles have swollen to the extent that he has trouble walking, and he
now spends much of his time in bed. He is the kind of person the legislation
was intended for and says people working against the act are "living in the
stone Age". A groundswell of opposition to the territory's euthanasia law
may see it scuttled before Mr Bell or anyone else has the opportunity to use
it. What was intended to be an act of mercy for a small number of people in
the last days of their lives has become an unprecedented legal, political
and medical crisis. A legal challenge, which will almost certainly end up in
the High Court, begins today in the NT Supreme Court. And the Prime
Minister, Mr John Howard, has given his tacit approval to a private member's
bill to be introduced in Federal Parliament by a Liberal backbencher, Mr
Kevin Andrews, that would override the NT's legislation. Mr Bell is one of
two patients waiting to use the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act - the first
legislation in the world to legalise doctor-assisted suicide through the
administering of lethal drugs. On Friday, the Northern Territory
Attorney-General, Mr Denis Burke, released the act's regulations that
dramatically reduced Mr Bell's chances of finding the required second
doctor's signature. Draft regulations released last month for public comment
made the qualifications to be held by the second doctor relatively broad.
But now, the second doctor must have a qualification in a medical specialty
related to the patient's illness, which Mr Burke says is a true reflection
of the act's intention.

Note from Lynda Cracknell:

The reference to a lack of specialists has since been clarified. Members of
specialist colleges, such as physicians and surgeons all qualify as
specialists under the requirements of the Act for a second doctor's opinion.
There are over 40 such specialists in the Territory and it is expected that
a reasonable number of them will be willing to give second opinions on
voluntary euthanasia patients (pending resolution of uncertainties flowing
from the current Supreme Court action).

Further note from DBE:  The final draft of the regulations have not yet been
posted on the Northern Territory government web site.

 <David Brandt-Erichsen>


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