X-Message-Number: 7297
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 08:46:37 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia update

>From Australian Broadcasting Corp
Thursday 12 December, 1996 (12:27pm AEDT)

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WOMAN GOES PUBLIC FOR SECOND SIGNATURE

A South Australian woman, who wants to become the second person to die under
the Northern Territory's voluntary euthanasia law, says she's gone public so
she can get the final signature she requires.  Fiftytwo-year-old Janet Mills
from Narracourt this morning told a crowded news conference in Darwin, she
has a terminal form of cancer known as mycosis fungoid.  She says she's
desperate to die because of the suffering she's going through.  Ms Mills has
indicated she's gone public because she's been unable to obtain the final
signature required under the Right to Die law -- that of a Territory-based
specialist in the area of her illness.

---------------

>From the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Fri Dec 13/96)

WOMAN PLEADS FOR THE RIGHT TO DIE

By GAY ALCORN in Darwin

"My name is Janet Mills. I am 52 years old and was born in Naracoorte, South
Australia. Three weeks ago, I left my home to travel to Darwin with my
husband, Dave, who is with me now, and my mother. My plan was to come to
Darwin to make use of the voluntary euthanasia law. I have now found this to
be almost impossible."

So began Janet Mills's extraordinary press conference in Darwin yesterday.
She was "asking ... begging really" for a Northern Territory specialist to
provide a signature to allow her to die under the Northern Territory's
Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, the first law in the world to legalise
voluntary euthanasia. She has the first two required signatures - from
pro-euthanasia physician Dr Philip Nitschke and South Australian
psychiatrist Chris Lloyd - but the act demands a third, a Territory resident
specialist in the illness, to confirm diagnosis and prognosis. None has
agreed to help.

Mrs Mills hobbled into the press conference with the aid of a stick and the
arm of her husband of 30 years, Dave, a retired shearer, and her daughter
Tanya, 25.  She was diagnosed with mycosis fungoides - the same rare cancer
that ravaged British actor Paul Eddington before his death last year - in
May 1993.  She itches constantly, and told the 7.30 Report last night she
prayed each night she would not wake up because the sheets would be covered
in blood and skin.  A medical opinion by Adelaide oncologist Jack Russell
stated there was "no active management available to help her condition ... I
suggest that
her prognosis is poor and is only measured in weeks".

"I have now been waiting in hospital in Darwin for more than three weeks,"
she said yesterday. "On four occasions doctors have indicated they will help
me, only then to change their minds at the last minute, and refuse even to
come and see me. Every time this happens there is further despair and
anxiety as we wait and hope."

She told the 7.30 Report that her husband and three adult children supported
her desire to die. "They just know how much I'm suffering. I've gone through
this for three and a half years. I wouldn't call it the easy way out, would
you? No one wants to die. I'm doing it because I want peace in my life. This
can't go on."  The law has been operational since July 1, but only one
person - Darwin carpenter Bob Dent - has used it.

Dr Nitschke said there were 10 to 12 specialists in the Territory who would
be eligible to sign the forms for Mrs Mills. He said some doctors were
opposed to euthanasia, but others "indicated initially that they've been
prepared to be involved then at the 13th hour suddenly changed their minds".
"In the Territory with the concerted and organised opposition of the medical
profession, the act has become unworkable," he said.

The executive officer of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian
Medical Association, Ms Robyn Cahill, "vehemently denied" the association
had put pressure on the specialists to refuse to participate in the law. She
accused Dr Nitschke of bringing the profession into disrepute.


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