X-Message-Number: 7926 Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 15:56:56 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Australia update From THE AUSTRALIAN (March 24) NITSCHKE VOWS TO FIGHT By Georgina Windsor MARCH 24: Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke threatened yesterday to break the law to help two of his terminally ill patients die if the Senate overturns the Northern Territory's euthanasia law today. Dr Nitschke, in Canberra to lobby for the law, said he would not turn his back on the two patients who had completed the necessary documentation to die. He said that, even if the Andrews Bill passed, the Territory law would be considered legal until the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, had signed the royal assent on the controversial anti-euthanasia legislation. The Senate is expected to vote on the Bill tonight, with both pro and anti-euthanasia supporters saying the final vote of the 73 senators is too close to call, and government sources believing it will be decided either way by just one vote. Dr Nitschke said the two patients had written to ask Sir William to "slow down" the signing of the legislation to give them time to use the Territory law. "If it all goes wrong and it becomes such a hypothetical question of, 'What will you do?', then I tend to answer it by saying, 'It's very hard to turn your back on people who are in this plight'," he said. "Obviously I feel very involved with those patients. "The question is, just how far does that involvement go . . . Would I behave illegally? Well, I've said that I'll help them, but can you help them in ways other than illegally? I don't know: I'll have to wait and see." Dr Nitschke said he was hopeful the Senate would support an amendment to the Andrews Bill proposed by Greens Senator Bob Brown to allow the two patients to die under the Territory law. The spokesman for the Coalition for Voluntary Euthanasia, Dr Robert Marr, called on Liberal Senator Winston Crane yesterday to "follow his conscience" and vote against the Bill now that a replacement for former senator Dr Bob Woods had been chosen. Senator Crane has agreed to abstain from tonight's vote to pair Dr Woods - an anti-euthanasia supporter - who resigned from the Senate this month after allegations he had rorted his parliamentary expenses. But his replacement, Marise Payne, was not expected to enter the Senate until May 13. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7926