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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