X-Message-Number: 6427
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 17:47:34 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia law

>From the Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 1996

MPS REFUSE TO MAKE DOCTORS MURDERERS
By Mike Seccombe in Canberra

Federal legislation over-riding the Northern Territory's euthanasia act
appears likely to be passed, if provisions allowing for the retrospective
prosecutions of doctors who help patients die are abandoned.  Cross-party
support for the private member's bill, to be moved by a Victorian Liberal,
Mr Kevin Andrews, appeared to be firming yesterday. When the bill is moved,
probably in mid-September, it is expected it will be seconded by a Labor
member, possibly the chief whip, Mr Leo McLeay.  

The central element of the bill is that the Northern Territory Legislative
Assembly does not have the power to allow a person to terminate his or her
own life.  The Andrews bill also includes a provision - apparently intended
to frighten Territory doctors from becoming involved in assisted suicides
between now and the passage of the Federal legislation -that would allow
anyone involved in euthanasia to be prosecuted, even though they acted
within Territory law.

This provision was criticised yesterday by parliamentarians on both sides as
being unduly punitive and possibly unconstitutional.  "I don't think the
Federal Parliament ought to retrospectively turn people into murderers and I
think the retrospectivity aspect could make it difficult for a lot of Labor
people to support it," Mr McLeay said.

But Liberal Party sources indicated the retrospective aspects of the bill
had been included only as a deterrent to doctors and was likely to be
dropped later.  Mr Andrews would say only that "it may well be the problem
with retrospectivity doesn't arise" because current legal action against the
legislation in the Territory Supreme Court, and possibly afterwards in the
High Court, would prevent any instances of euthanasia until September.  The
Australian Medical Association has also warned doctors off.

While many MPs and senators are expected to support the bill on religious
grounds, others yesterday said they found the concept of State-sanctioned
euthanasia similar to that of capital punishment.  Mr Lindsay Tanner, a
member of Labor's Left, said he also had concerns about possible effects on
the approach to health policy, that euthanasia could come to be seen as an
excuse to devote fewer resources to hospice services and palliative care.
He also worried about elderly people, concerned they had become a burden to
their families, possibly being influenced by pressure from the State and
relatives, or temporarily depressed.


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