Cancer Patient Dies in Legal Euthanasia

An Australian man with prostate cancer has become the first person to die under the world’s first law permitting voluntary euthanasia, said Dr. Philip Nitschke, who assisted the man with a lethal dose of barbiturates at the patient’s home in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory region. The patient had terminal cancer and had been ill for a number of years, the doctor said. The world’s first voluntary euthanasia law was narrowly passed by the Northern Territory legislature but has been bitterly opposed by Australia’s leading medical association, right-to-life groups and the Vatican. Euthanasia is illegal elsewhere in Australia, but doctors say it is unofficially practiced.