X-Message-Number: 6083
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 09:40:28 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australian euthanasia machine

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) published this feature story today.
It is now being carried by international news services.  This is an
abbreviated form of the article.  The device mentioned here might be very
useful in the future of cryonics.

(April 17, 1996)

Press 'yes' to die:  why Jan Culhane hopes to choose death by computer.

By GAY ALCORN

If everything goes according to Jan Culhane's plan, she will be the first
person in the world to kill herself under euthanasia laws passed by a
parliament.  Her final act will be to respond to this message on a computer
screen: "If you press 'Yes', you will cause a lethal injection to be given
within 30 seconds, and will die. Do you wish to proceed?"  Fifteen seconds
later a syringe will begin to administer lethal drugs into Ms Culhane's arm.
She will fall asleep within seconds, and die painlessly from asphyxiation
within minutes.

"I'm 52 on August 9," says Ms Culhane. "I'm 51, hopefully, when I pass
away."  Ms Culhane, a nurse and mother of three, has terminal cancer. She
has moved to Darwin from NSW to set in train a sequence of events which will
lead to her doctor-assisted legal suicide under the Northern Territory's
voluntary euthanasia law.  She left her home in Albury on March 12, spent
three days in a Darwin backpackers' hostel and then found a flat in which to
wait for the world's first euthanasia legislation to come into force on July 1.

She wants to use the euthanasia machine, dubbed the "death machine", being
developed in Darwin by Dr Philip Nitschke and his friend, computer
enthusiast Des Carne.

"I'm in a great deal of pain and suffering," said Ms Culhane.  "It's not all
horrific pain that you can't control and it's not all physical pain.  I
think that the fear that I suffer is just as severe as the physical pain.
I'm by no means in more pain than I've ever seen people survive under, but
it's pain that I'm not willing to accept.  What is non-acceptable to me is
probably acceptable to somebody else."

She has made her decision to die carefully and deliberately, after five
years of suffering from terminal breast cancer, and after 30 years'
experience as a nurse.  She reads from a piece of paper the three reasons
why she wants to end her life:  "I want to die because I've got a terminal
illness and because the quality of my life has been reduced.  The last
emphatic reason is that I will not live in fear."

Ms Culhane has an overwhelming fear that she will lose autonomy as her
illness progresses. Her right breast was removed in 1991, her left in 1992,
and the cancer has spread to her lymph glands.  She stopped chemotherapy
treatment because it left her constantly vomiting and exhausted, unable to
walk to the shop for bread and milk.  She now tries to keep her daily pain
killers - endone and morphine - to a minimum because they affect her ability
to think clearly and live independently.  Her condition is terminal, but her
life expectancy is unclear.

The NT's euthanasia legislation aims to give a terminally-ill patient the
right to request medical assistance to end their life.  It has also
unleashed a debate between political, medical and religious interests about
the ethics of doctor-assisted suicide.

Ms Culhane wants privacy during the last few months of her life, but she has
agreed to one media interview with the Herald because she wants to remind
people that the legislation is about a person's right to control their own
death.  "There's a lot of fear about euthanasia," she says. "People think
it's going to become like Hitler saying who should die and who shouldn't
die. But I can't see that if it's left up to personal choice there'll be any
great rush to come to the NT to die."

Central to her decision is her experience as a nurse in Victoria, Queensland
and WA.  "When I first heard that the legislation was going to be gazetted,
I felt happy for me but then I cried for those I had nursed. I had sat by
their bed and watched them day by day, hour by hour, go through pain and
suffering. I felt that they hadn't been given the same privilege that I have."

Dr Nitschke believes she is the first person to begin the difficult process
under the legislation.  When the act commences, she is required to made her
request to her doctor, then a second doctor with experience in her illness
has to examine her, as well as a psychiatrist who will need to agree that
she is not suffering from a "treatable clinical depression".  She must be
informed of all palliative care options.  At least seven days after her
initial request, she can sign a formal "Request for Assistance to End My
Life in a Humane and Dignified Manner".  Then she will need to wait for 48
hours before lethal drugs can be administered.

 <David Brandt-Erichsen>


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