X-Message-Number: 7935
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 19:43:45 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia update (possibly the final edition)
Abridged from THE AGE, Melbourne, March 25
Right-to-die law overruled
By KAREN MIDDLETON,
Canberra
The Senate last night voted by a narrow
margin to override the Northern
Territory's controversial right-to-die
legislation.
The historic conscience vote - 38 to 34
- is set to bring to an end the world's
first system of legalised euthanasia,
just six months after a Darwin resident,
Mr Bob Dent, became the first person to
die under the law.
The vote was watched by a packed public
gallery, which included pro-euthanasia
physician Dr Philip Nitschke, other
parliamentarians, church representatives
and leading figures in the right-to-life
movement.
The Senate passed a private member's
bill, initiated by Victorian MP Mr Kevin
Andrews, through its key second reading,
virtually ensuring its ultimate passage.
The bill - debated after intense
lobbying by pro and anti-euthanasia
advocates - means the Northern Territory
will no longer be allowed to sanction
the right of the terminally ill to end
their lives at a time of their choosing.
The vote sets the scene for continuing
controversy over the rights of states
and territories to make their own laws.
Last night all four senators
representing the Northern Territory and
ACT voted against the Andrews bill.
Earlier last night, the Senate rejected
a push by Tasmanian Greens Senator Bob
Brown to have the proceedings abandoned
in favor of a referendum on voluntary
euthanasia.
It also rejected a proposed amendment
put by NT Labor Senator Bob Collins that
sought to dump the bill and replace it
with one that would outlaw euthanasia
across Australia.
After the second
reading, senators wrestled with other
proposed amendments from Senator Brown,
the key one being a plea to allow two
terminally ill people in Darwin who have
completed the administrative
requirements for using the law to die at
a time of their choosing.
Dr Nitschke had earlier yesterday made a
final appeal to senators to show
compassion for his two dying patients.
In the chamber, Senator Brown and the
leader of the Australian Democrats,
Senator Cheryl Kernot, endorsed that
plea.
Speaking ahead of last night's vote, the
Chief Minister of the Northern
Territory, Mr Shane Stone, said it would
be ``a very serious moment in our
history'' if the law were overruled.
``We are at a crossroads when we see
powers that were given to us as
self-government being taken away from
us,'' Mr Stone said.
-------------------
Senate's ruling is matter of life or
death for patients
By GAY ALCORN,
Canberra
For the two terminally ill people who
have satisfied all requirements under
the Northern Territory's voluntary
euthanasia law, the Senate vote was
desperately, personally important.
If the Andrews bill passed and Senator
Bob Brown's ``grandfather clause''
allowing these patients to go ahead was
voted down, the patients would have had
just hours or a few days to use the law
legally.
The last couple of days have been
torture for these two. Dr Philip
Nitschke said one got the vital
signature from a specialist, who
confirmed his diagnosis and prognosis,
on Saturday. The cancer sufferer, a
55-year-old NT resident, had no desire
to use the law immediately, but wanted
to live as long as possible.
The other, a 56-year-old former nurse
from near Darwin, last week sent a
letter to all senators pleading with
them to reject the Andrews bill and at
least allow her dispensation to die.
Dr Nitschke said that if Senator Brown's
amendment failed, both intended writing
to the Governor-General, Sir William
Deane, pleading to delay assent to the
Andrews bill to give them time to die at
a time of their choosing.
Media interest in the patients' stories
is intense. Commercial television
programs have offered thousands of
dollars to speak to patients; one group,
including international interests,
recently offered $250,000 to Dr Nitschke
if he helped make contact, which is
illegal under the NT's law.
Since the Rights of the Terminally Ill
Act - the first law in the world to
legalise voluntary euthanasia - came
into effect on 1 July last year, four
people have legally committed suicide
with the assistance of a doctor. Two
were Northern Territory residents, one
woman travelled from Sydney and another
travelled from country South Australia.
All had cancer and all used Dr
Nitschke's controversial ``death
machine'', which delivered a lethal
injection via a computer-driven syringe.
Dr Nitschke says that in the past few
weeks one terminally ill person a day
had contacted him wanting his help to
die, more than had contacted him in the
previous six months.
Although the comparison was ``over the
top'', he said he had a strange sense of
the fall of Saigon. ``The images then
were of people scrambling to get on
those helicopters, and they knew it was
all over and you had to get out. In a
microcosm, I've had patients scrambling,
ringing me, and I've had to say no, no,
helicopter's shut, you're not on it.''
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