X-Message-Number: 6593
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 20:45:17 -0700
From: 
Subject: Australia update

AUSTRALIAN COURT UPHOLDS EUTHANASIA LAW

DARWIN, Australia (AP) - An Australian court upheld the world's first
voluntary euthanasia law on Wednesday, striking down a legal challenge by
doctors and aborigines.

The challenge to the Northern Territory Supreme Court was one of several
attempts to scuttle the law, which allows doctors to administer lethal doses
of drugs to the terminally ill. A bill also is pending in Parliament that
would override the law.

Euthanasia became legal in the Northern Territory on July 1, more than one
year after the regional legislature passed the bill. Doctors have refused to
use the law until the legal challenge has run its course, fearing they could
be subject to murder charges if the law is struck down.

Two terminally ill patients who traveled to Darwin for euthanasia have been
unable to line up two doctors and a psychiatrist to evaluate them, as
required by the law. The law also requires a nine-day waiting period. It's
not known whether anyone has been able to meet the strict requirements of
the law and use it to die.

In the territory court challenge, plaintiffs backed by the Australian
Medical Association and aboriginal religious groups said the law was invalid
because the Northern Territory did not have the power to make life-and-death
decisions. The court split 2-1 in ruling that the territory was within its
rights.

Dr. Chris Wake of the region's medical association said the ruling will be
appealed to the High Court of Australia, where constitutional issues would
be heard. Wake said the fact that the ruling wasn't unanimous added weight
to a "strong position" to take the case before the High Court.

 <David Brandt-Erichsen>


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