Australian state’s euthanasia law likely to be catalyst for whole country
Sydney — The parliament of Australia’s second largest state passed legislation on Friday to allow terminally ill patients to seek medical help to end their lives, a bill that is expected to act as a catalyst for the rest of the country to adopt similar laws. Any resident of Victoria state over 18, with a terminal illness and with less than 12 months to live can request a lethal dose of medication, the bill permits. Anyone that is too ill to administer the dosage can ask for a doctor to help. Many countries have legalised euthanasia or physician-assisted deaths, including Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and some states in the US. But Australia’s federal government has opposed legalising euthanasia even though the remote Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction in the world to do so in 1995. The federal government enacted its own legislation to override the Northern Territory law in 1997 under rules allowed by the constitution. State law can not be overridden. The passag...
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