X-Message-Number: 6466
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 1996 13:23:12 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia

Two Reuters wire stories from July 2: 

NO QUIET LIFE FOR AUSTRALIAN BEHIND EUTHANASIA STORM

DARWIN, Australia - On the tropical shores of northern Australia, a former
provincial governor is playing a Kevorkian-like role as he shields the
world's first assisted suicide law against an onslaught from doctors and
clerics.  Unlike Dr. Jack Kevorkian in Michigan, Marshall Perron, for eight
years Northern Territory chief minister, does not personally assist in
suicides.  But as architect of the law that came into force Monday, Perron
is every bit as vociferous in proclaiming his crusade against the unnecesary
suffering of the terminally ill as his opponents seek a court ruling
blocking it.

"If they (patients) are suffering terribly ... and they are competent and
they decide it's time to go, then I just can't comprehend why we wouldn't
help them to go," he told Reuters. "This way, they can have an easier death."

Perron's years as chief minister of the rugged Northern Territory -- locale
for the Crocodile Dundee films -- was marked more by stability than reform
until he announced his voluntary euthanasia legislation in 1995.  After
shepherding it through the territory's parliament, Perron, 54, quit
politics, hoping to retire to car restoring and his local fish farm, where
he also lives, on the shores of Darwin's sparkling azure harbor.  But his
beloved 1946 silver Ford Tudor hot-rod rarely leaves its garage these days
as he finds himself embroiled in the passionate controversy over dying
people's right to die.

"I didn't anticipate the extent of interest across the world," the quiet,
graying, slightly-built former government chief said.  "What's happening is
that ... legal voluntary euthanasia is going through a very difficult
birth," Perron said.  "And that will continue for a while before the future
is clear, whilst the gauntlet is to be run of religious... zealots."

He charges that the critics, especially doctors and clerics, are protecting
their own positions and ignoring the suffering of terminally- ill people.
Darwin's Supreme Court Monday reserved its decision on the critics' suit.
Perron denies media reports his crusade was driven by his mother' s death
from a heart attack several years ago.

"It was unpleasant to see my mother, but she didn't suffer for long ... she
wouldn't have been a candidate for voluntary euthanasia, in my mind," he
said.  "I have always believed ... that a person who was suffering terribly,
death was inevitable, ought to have the option to accelerate it."  He said
he remained confident the law would survive the legal and political
challenges it now faces.

But regardless of the outcome, he is convinced the issue is now firmly on
the political agenda in Australia and that the euthanasia cause has moved
forward worldwide.

"Even if I don't succeed, the debate which will ensue ... will advance the
day when a parliament somewhere tries again," he said.  "You see, it's
inevitable voluntary euthanasia will become a very controlled, but accepted
practice in jurisdictions like Australia and other democracies."

Several dying Australians have already traveled to this isolated territory
to seek help to end their lives.  But the first legal suicide is not
expected to take place for some time, with doctors expected to hold off
until the legal and political challenges are decided as they could face
criminal charges, including murder, if the law is overturned.


AUSTRALIA'S "DOCTOR DEATH" SEEKS DEATH SIGNATURE

DARWIN, Australia - An Australian dubbed "Doctor Death" was on Wednesday
struggling to find colleagues willing to help him assist a terminally-ill
man become the first person to use the world's only voluntary euthanasia
law.  Northern Territory Dr. Philip Nitschke, a member of the Voluntary
Euthanasia Network, is a leading figure in Australia's pro-euthanasia lobby
and described U.S. pro-suicide Dr. Jack Kevorkian as "a hero."  Nitschke
told Reuters that 65-year-old taxi driver Max Bell, who is bed-ridden and
dying of cancer, just wanted to end his pain, despite the political and
legal battle raging over the territory's assisted suicide law.  

"Max wants to get going," said Nitschke, dubbed "Doctor Death" by his
critics.  "He's disgusted, upset, anxious, angry.  He's a strong willed,
determined man, but this is testing him.  He's living on sips of milk and
vomiting all the time."

His search for the third and final doctor needed to support Bell' s
application for voluntary euthanasia is being hampered by continuing
confusion about the law's fate.  A coalition of medical groups, church and
aboriginal leaders have launched a court challenge, and the law is also
threatened by separate legislative proposals to be debated in the territory
and national parliaments later in the year. Australia's national government
has legislative power over the territory.

Doctors have been warned they could face criminal charges, such as murder,
for helping a patient suicide if the law is overturned.  But Nitschke still
hopes he will get the final signature.

"If I don't get the signature, I will be absolutely disgusted at this
profession," he said. "(Max) is saying, 'surely one of these doctors will
come forward and let me go'."

The euthanasia debate has attracted worldwide attention on this outback
territory of less than 200,000 people and sparked Vatican criticism. "With
the legalization of euthanasia in the Northern Terriory. ..a new monstrous
chapter in the history of humanity has been introduced, " the Vatican
newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an editorial.  "Killing, cutting off or
suppressing life is always a crime.  "The life of a human person is sacred
and untouchable."  The editorial was written by Father Gino Concetti, a
moral theologian whose views reflect those of Pope John Paul.

Territory government chief Shane Stone, a Catholic who personally opposes
the euthanasia law but is bound to uphold the parliament's laws, said he
would wear the Vatican's wrath.

"If I incur the wrath of the Vatican and the Pope as a Catholic because I
take the view that, notwithstanding my opposition to euthanasia, I will
enforce the will of the parliament, then so be it," Stone said in a radio
interview.

Several terminally-ill Australians have travelled thousands of miles to this
rugged and remote outback territory to take advantage of the assisted
suicide law.  Bell, who travelled from the southern state of New South
Wales, is in hiding from scores of national and international journalists
who have arrived in Darwin to cover the first death.  If he gets approval,
Bell will kill himself using Nitschke's " Final Exit" computerized system,
which allows patients to give themselves lethal injections after answering a
series of questions posed by the computer, linked to an intravenous drip.
Euthanasia is illegal in the rest of Australia, but doctors say the practice
occurs unofficially.


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