X-Message-Number: 6429 Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 07:41:23 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Australia update >From The Age, Melbourne, July 2 TERRITORY DEATH LAW NOT VALID, COURT TOLD By Gay Alcorn, Caroline Milburn The Northern Territory's voluntary euthanasia legislation was not valid because euthanasia was beyond the legislative authority of the territory and was invalidly assented to by the Administrator, the NT Supreme Court was told yesterday. Mr David Jackson, QC, for the plaintiffs, Dr Chris Wake and the Reverend Dr Djiniyinni Gondarra, told the court the Northern Territory did not have the powers of a state, but was limited by the federal Self-Government Act 1978. Mr Jackson outlined the case challenging the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act - the first in the world to legalise voluntary euthanasia - before Chief Justice Brian Martin, Justice David Angel and Justice Dean Mildren. The act came into force yesterday. Mr Jackson said the case was essentially a "legal question'' but the "question of morality in the broad sense and the law aren't entirely distant questions'". The plaintiffs' submissions argued that: *Because euthanasia was not a matter within the territory's executive authority, the administrator (the equivalent of a governor) should have sought advice from the Commonwealth Government about the act and this was not sought. *There was an implied principle in the Constitution of the sanctity of life or an inalienable right to life. The submission argued that the euthanasia law gave doctors the power to decide whether a person should die, which, under the Constitution, could only be a judicial decision. The plaintiffs conceded the issue could be dealt with only by the High Court because of a binding court decision. The Commonwealth was not represented yesterday. The Attorney-General, Mr Daryl Williams, has said the Commonwealth has reserved its right to be heard if the matter reaches the High Court. About 30 Arnhem Land Aborigines sat in court yesterday to protest against euthanasia, which they say is against traditional law and its discussion is frightening Aborigines from using health services. Outside court, Dr Wake said the plaintiffs would seek a stay at the end of the case preventing the act being used until the legal issues were decided. The case continues today. Meanwhile, the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria said yesterday that 15 terminally ill Victorians wanted to travel to the Northern Territory and use the right-to-die laws. But they have been advised to delay their journeys until the legal uncertainty about the law is clarified. Ms Kay Koetsier, the society's executive officer, said that if the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act became bogged in the courts because of legal challenges, it would prove useless to the terminally ill. However, Dr Darren Russell, a Melbourne general practitioner working with AIDS patients, said there was no need for people to go north because euthanasia was secretly practised in Victoria by a small number of doctors. Dr Russell is one of seven doctors who wrote an open letter to the Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, in The Age last year, opposing laws treating doctors as murderers for abetting suicide among the terminally ill. <David Brandt-Erichsen> Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6429