X-Message-Number: 7082
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 10:01:38 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia update

     SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
     (Monday, Oct 28/96). 

     EUTHANASIA COMPROMISE REJECTED

     By Craig Skewan in Canberra

     The mover of a private member's bill aimed at overturning the
     Northern Territory's euthanasia laws has rejected a proposed
     compromise under which terminally ill people from outside the
     Territory would not be able to use its provisions.

     A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Howard also believed
     debate on the Federal bill, and a conscience vote by MPs, should
     proceed.

     The Federal Liberal MP whose legislation is to be introduced into
     Federal Parliament for debate today, Mr Kevin Andrews, said he had
     legal advice that the proposal from the Territory's Chief
     Minister, Mr Shane Stone, was unconstitutional.

     And he said the suggested restriction on its use appeared to be
     aimed at stalling the Federal parliamentary debate.

     Mr Andrews said the Territory's legislation sent a signal to
     suicidal people that they were "better off dead".

     He said the Territory law had many flaws, including a lack of
     adequate power for a coroner to investigate the circumstances of a
     person being given a lethal injection.

     "If the Commonwealth Parliament cannot debate a matter which goes
     to the life and death of its citizens, then what's the purpose of
     a Commonwealth Parliament?" he said.

     His bill is expected to pass easily in the House of
     Representatives but the numbers appear to be close in the Upper
     House, which could send it to a Senate committee for an
     examination, taking several months.

     A bipartisan delegation of politicians from the Northern
     Territory, the ACT and Norfolk Island yesterday presented a
     "Remonstrance" - an ancient type of formal protest dating back to
     1641 - to the Federal Parliament.

     The submission opposed the Andrews Bill on the ground that it
     breached the rights of Territories to make their own laws.

     Mr Andrews defended the Government's decision to have the debate
     limited to 90 minutes in the main chamber of the House of
     Representatives before it was sent for further debate in
     Parliament's main committee.

     One Opposition MP, Mr Stephen Smith, described the committee as
     "sideshow alley" and said although he supported the private
     member's bill, he would continue to press for a full debate in the
     parliamentary chambers.

     Dr Robert Marr, from the Coalition of Organisations for Voluntary
     Euthanasia, rejected the "religious fundamentalist approach" by Mr
     Andrews and some churches.

     "They are trying to deny dying patients the right to choose how
     much suffering they have to endure at the end of their life," Dr
     Marr said.

     He said the conservative political grouping within the Liberal
     Party to which Mr Andrews belonged, the Lyons Forum, wanted to
     "hijack the political and social agenda" of the Government.

     Dr Marr said by rejecting Mr Stone's proposal, Mr Andrews had
     undermined his argument that Federal intervention was necessary
     because any Australian citizen could travel to the Territory to
     use its euthanasia law.

     Mr Rod Dent, whose father, Bob, died under the provisions of the
     Territory's law on September 22, said yesterday passage of the
     Andrews bill would signal a return to "medieval days" when
     churches ruled society.

     The standing committee of the Anglican General Synod yesterday
     came out in support of the Andrews bill.


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