Whilst recognising the courage and good faith of the voluntary euthanasia protagonists and the fine balance in the arguments, the Natural Death Centre has tended to argue in favour of passive euthanasia (the right to refuse force feeding, etc) and against active euthanasia. The first law permitting voluntary euthanasia, however, took effect, at least briefly, in Australia's Northern Territory from July 1st '96, but was immediately under challenge in the Supreme Court from the Australian Medical Association and an aboriginal group. A bill in the federal parliament was also mooted to strip the Northern Territory of the power to allow termination of life. The following is extracted from an Associated Press report carried in the London Times.
Fred Finch, the Health Services Minister, warned terminally ill Australians not to rush to the Northern Territory to end their lives.
"It is important that people understand the strict conditions of legislation and do not simply uproot themselves from their homes and families to travel to the territory with false expectations," he said.
The voluntary euthanasia bill was passed in the Northern Territory parliament in May '96 and took effect on July 1st '96. Mr Finch said education programmes required by the law had been put into place. All medical practitioners and nurses in the Northern Territory will be invited to attend the programmes.
A public education campaign will include a euthanasia advice free telephone hotline and brochures explaining the workings of the Act.
A group was expected to begin developing an aboriginal education programme. Aborigines had opposed the bill, some being afraid that if they sought medical treatment they would be killed.
The law requires that a terminally ill patient seeking to die must be evaluated by a psychiatrist to make sure her or she is not depressed. Euthanasia would be administered by a lethal overdose of drugs under medical supervision. Australia's immigration laws would bar terminally ill foreigners from going to the territory to end their lives. However, Australians from other states in the country could travel there.
The Bill makes the Northern Territory the first government to legalise voluntary euthanasia.
Doctors in the Netherlands may perform mercy killings within strict legal guidelines, but euthanasia is technically illegal. In America, Oregon voters approved a law allowing assisted suicide in 1995, but an injunction blocked it from taking effect pending a judge's ruling. This was then superseded in 1997 by a Death with Dignity Act allowing assisted-suicide in certain cases.
For more recent news on euthanasia, see Colombia legalises euthanasia which also includes information on how the Northern Territory law was overturned, and on the recent legalisation of euthanasia in the Netherlands.
This webpage forms part of the Global Ideas Bank (www.globalideasbank.org).
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