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> Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6422