X-Message-Number: 7380
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 20:14:34 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Update on Australia update

A news brief posted today at the "Deliverance" site in Australia contradicts
the earlier LONDON SUNDAY TIMES report about Janet Mills having obtained all
the necessary signatures to die under the Northern Territory law.

JANET MILLS STILL AWAITS THE LAST SIGNATURE

Despite reports in a London newspaper that cancer sufferer Janet Mills has
obtained her last required signature to enable her to use the NT Rights of
the Terminally Ill Act, her doctor, Dr Philip Nitschke, denied these claims
and indicated that "The Sunday Times" had misunderstood the complex
proceedure that patients hoping to use the law must undertake.

"Unfortunately Janet Mills still requires a signature from a resident cancer
specialist in the NT, and this is proving exceedingly difficult to obtain.
Support from interstate cancer specialists, while encouraging, is not
sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Act", Dr Nitschke said.


Here is an earlier news brief from the same site:


NECESSARY SPECIALIST SIGNATURE THWARTED BY ROYAL AUSTRALAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

Janet Mills continues to wait for the required third signature that would
enable her to take advantage of the Northern Territory's Rights of the
Terminally Ill Act.

She already has the signatures of her General Practitioner and a
psychiatrist, affirming her prognosis is hopeless, that she is dying, and
that her decision to seek voluntary euthanasia is not the result of a
treatable clinical depression.

Dr Bart Currie, NT head of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, said
that he believed that none of the Territory's 20 physicians would break
ranks and help Janet. This attitude highlights the specific difficulties
with the Territory legislation, operating in a climate of hostility from the
medical profession.

Unfortunately for Janet, her disease, Mycosis Fungoides, is considered a
"medical", rather than "surgical" condition, and as such help is needed from
a physician rather than a surgeon.


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