X-Message-Number: 6429
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 07:41:23 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia update

>From The Age, Melbourne, July 2

TERRITORY DEATH LAW NOT VALID, COURT TOLD

By Gay Alcorn, Caroline Milburn

The Northern Territory's voluntary euthanasia legislation was not valid
because euthanasia was beyond the legislative authority of the territory and
was invalidly assented to by the Administrator, the NT Supreme Court was
told yesterday. Mr David Jackson, QC, for the plaintiffs, Dr Chris Wake and
the Reverend Dr Djiniyinni Gondarra, told the court the Northern Territory
did not have the powers of a state, but was limited by the federal
Self-Government Act 1978. Mr Jackson outlined the case challenging the
Rights of the Terminally Ill Act - the first in the world to legalise
voluntary euthanasia - before Chief Justice Brian Martin, Justice David
Angel and Justice Dean Mildren. The act came into force yesterday. Mr
Jackson said the case was essentially a "legal question'' but the "question
of morality in the broad sense and the law aren't entirely distant questions'".

The plaintiffs' submissions argued that:

*Because euthanasia was not a matter within the territory's executive
authority, the administrator (the equivalent of a governor) should have
sought advice from the Commonwealth Government about the act and this was
not sought.

*There was an implied principle in the Constitution of the sanctity of life
or an inalienable right to life.

The submission argued that the euthanasia law gave doctors the power to
decide whether a person should die, which, under the Constitution, could
only be a judicial decision. The plaintiffs conceded the issue could be
dealt with only by the High Court because of a binding court decision. The
Commonwealth was not represented yesterday. The Attorney-General, Mr Daryl
Williams, has said the Commonwealth has reserved its right to be heard if
the matter reaches the High Court. About 30 Arnhem Land Aborigines sat in
court yesterday to protest against euthanasia, which they say is against
traditional law and its discussion is frightening Aborigines from using
health services. Outside court, Dr Wake said the plaintiffs would seek a
stay at the end of the case preventing the act being used until the legal
issues were decided. The case continues today. 

Meanwhile, the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria said yesterday that
15 terminally ill Victorians wanted to travel to the Northern Territory and
use the right-to-die laws. But they have been advised to delay their
journeys until the legal uncertainty about the law is clarified. Ms Kay
Koetsier, the society's executive officer, said that if the Rights of the
Terminally Ill Act became bogged in the courts because of legal challenges,
it would prove useless to the terminally ill. However, Dr Darren Russell, a
Melbourne general practitioner working with AIDS patients, said there was no
need for people to go north because euthanasia was secretly practised in
Victoria by a small number of doctors. Dr Russell is one of seven doctors
who wrote an open letter to the Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, in The Age last
year, opposing laws treating doctors as murderers for abetting suicide among
the terminally ill.

 <David Brandt-Erichsen>


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