X-Message-Number: 6408 Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 08:00:46 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Australia law going under >From The Age, Melbourne, June 29 LEADERS UNITE TO OPPOSE DEATH LAW The fate of the Northern Territory euthanasia law appears sealed after the federal Opposition Leader, Mr Kim Beazley, yesterday joined the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in opposing the plans. The bipartisan stand by the leaders has virtually assured sufficient support among MPs for Federal Parliament to override the NT laws when the issue is debated later this year. Further practical obstacles to the operation of the euthanasia laws also emerged yesterday - just days before the laws are to come into force on Monday. The NT Government warned doctors they could face prosecution for murder or manslaughter if they helped a terminally ill person to die before legal challenges were resolved. And in Canberra, the Federal Government announced that euthanasia services in the NT would not be eligible for Medicare benefits. But the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, has determined the Federal Government will not be directly involved in moves in Federal Parliament to thwart the NT laws. Instead, he told Liberal MPs this week they will be allowed a conscience vote on any private members' bill seeking to overturn the euthanasia plan. A bill drafted by a Liberal backbencher, Mr Kevin Andrews, which seeks to constitutionally veto the NT legislation is expected to be debated in September. Mr Andrews's legislation seeks to use Section 122 of the Constitution - dealing with the separation of powers between the Commonwealth and the states and territories -to quash the NT legislation. Mr Beazley yesterday said he hoped the NT Government would be pressured to reconsider its legislation. The Deputy Prime Minister and National Party leader, Mr Tim Fischer, said doctors who provided euthanasia services would be "practitioners of death". The Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, told Parliament the Government had accepted advice from the Australian Medical Association that euthanasia was unethical and clinically inappropriate and that relevant treatment should not be eligible for Medicare benefits. Meanwhile, the voluntary euthanasia law appeared close to unworkable yesterday after the NT Government warned doctors they could face prosecution for murder or manslaughter if they helped a terminally ill person to die before legal challenges were resolved. The NT Chief Health Officer, Dr Shirley Hendy, sent a letter to all Territory doctors advising that if the legal challenge to the law, beginning in the Supreme Court on Monday, was successful, "the likely effect is that the act would be invalid from the outset". Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6408