X-Message-Number: 7435
Date: Mon, 06 Jan 1997 14:56:02 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Australia update

>From the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Tuesday, Jan 7/97)

PATIENTS FACE AGONISING HUNT FOR "THIRD SIGNATURE"

By Gay Alcorn

The search for the "third signature" under the Northern Territory's
voluntary euthanasia law has proven to be a painful hurdle for those who
wish to die under the legislation.

Mrs Janet Mills reluctantly held a press conference last month to beg for a
specialist to provide the third signature to allow her to die under the
Northern Territory's Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.

Mrs Mills already had the signature of Dr Chris Lloyd, an Adelaide
psychiatrist who had confirmed she was not suffering a treatable clinical
depression. Euthanasia proponent Dr Philip Nitschke also agreed that she
qualified under the Act. But no specialist - who under the law must be a
Territory resident - agreed to see her to confirm her diagnoses and prognosis.

The press conference was criticised by the Australian Medical Association
and other anti-euthanasia campaigners as an example of euthanasia
campaigners using patients to push their own agenda.

But in her letter released yesterday, Mrs Mills said it was the press
conference that encouraged a specialist to come forward: "I hope that anyone
else wishing to use this Act does not have to go through such a long battle
to find a doctor to help them," the letter said.

It is understood that Mrs Mills intended to take her own life if no
specialist would help. On December 16, the day she decided to commit
suicide, a specialist saw her. He signed the form on December 18.

It was a different specialist to the one who signed for Mr Bob Dent, who in
September became the first to use the legislation. Both have remained
anonymous. Whatever the Senate's decision on Mr Kevin Andrews's Private
Members' Bill that seeks to overturn the Territory's law, the Territory
Government is now under pressure to reassess its residency requirements
under the law. There are about 40 specialists in the Territory but,
according to Dr Nitschke, only about 10 are loosely qualified as a
specialist "in the treatment of the terminal illness from which the patient
is suffering", as the Act specifies. The Northern Territory Chief Minister,
Mr Shane Stone, has said he would not "rule out" amending the law. The
Northern Territory Attorney-General, Mr Denis Burke, yesterday rejected the
suggestion that the law was punitive and that people who were clearly
eligible were forced to undergo weeks of agony in search of a specialist.

He said the Act "was primarily for Territorians ... it was never an Act for
all of Australia." Melbourne doctor Rodney Syme, of the National Coalition
for Voluntary Euthanasia, said that the view of a specialist who knew the
patient would "carry more weight" and have greater credibility than a
Territory specialist who had no history with the patient.

The argument that such a change would require an amendment to the Act is
debatable. The Government's working party on the legislation, which reported
in May last year, released draft regulations and its report stated that the
specialist under the present law could be from the Territory or from
interstate. Their recommendations were rejected, and three days before the
Act became operational on July 1 last year, regulations stated the
specialist must be a Territory resident.


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