Exit International director, euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke has begun scouting locations for Australia’s first ‘euthanasia clinic’. His Adelaide visit comes as the South Australian Parliament prepared to debate new laws decriminalising assisted suicie. The Punch asked Dr Nitschke about his euthanasia clinic plans.
Q) What would a euthanasia clinic offer?
A) A euthanasia clinic offers the provision of coordinated services for those wishing a peaceful death. Not only providing the necessary lethal barbiturates, but also required counseling for the patient and their family, and the chance to ensure that palliative options have been properly explored and any underlying psychiatric issues uncovered.
Note that with the South Australian proposed legislation, there will be no ‘death tourism’ where people travel from other countries or states to come the clinic to die, but rather those terminally ill will die in their own homes.
Q) Why is a euthanasia clinic necessary?
A) Lessons learnt in the Northern Territory when the world’s first voluntary euthanasia legislation came into effect in 1996 showed the need for such a facility. Without the ability to coordinate support, serious problems can develop.
We saw this in Darwin - the first person who arrived in the city for help to die, Broken Hill man Max Bell who was dying of stomach cancer, had eventually to give up as he could not satisfy the necessary prerequisites and return to his home to die a few weeks later in the Broken Hill Base Hospital.
A euthanasia clinic would have avoided this unnecessary suffering. We do not want to make these same mistakes in SA.
Q) The proposed changes in SA effectively decriminalise assisted suicide – would you like to see further liberalisation of the laws?
A) Yes, decriminalisation is the first step. We saw this strategy successfully employed in Holland where decriminalisation was employed for many years before legislation was passed in 2001.
Decriminalisation will give South Australians the chance to closely watch assisted suicide in practice without doctors being exposed to serious legal risk.
Q) Critics say voluntary euthanasia would always be vulnerable to abuse by family members – do you think it is possible to completely safeguard patients’ rights?
A) It is impossible to reassure everybody; there will always be those worried that some form of abuse may occur.
But the safeguards employed do ensure that this possibility is very small. Indeed, to employ even stricter requirements will make the legislation even more difficult for those suffering and desperate for help to end their suffering to achieve their goal.
Q) If SA gets a euthanasia clinic, do you think ‘euthanasia tourism’ is a possibility?
A) I understand that there is particular sensitivity to the ’ euthanasia tourism’ issue. To avoid this, strict residential requirements will be employed so that those not resident in SA will not be able to access the new laws.
The Swiss have not done this, and people from other countries, including Australia, can take advantage of their civilised legislation. While understanding the restriction, I think it sad that other Australians will not be able to benefit from these changes to South Australian law; however, it is unlikely that a situation where other Australians are unable to participate will last.
These expected changes will put pressure on the other state parliaments to pass similar legislative changes.
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