THE Northern Territory of Australia is not somewhere one would expect trail blazing social legislation to emerge. It is vast, sunbaked, sparsely populated and, in the manner of places all over the world which fit that description, has the appearance of conservatism.
Darwin is the territory's capital, right on the peak of north central Australia, and there, on July 1st, 1996, the Northern Territory became the first place in the world to enact specific legislation permitting euthanasia. While the Netherlands has in effect decriminalised some euthanasia, and the US state of Oregon has a court challenge pending to an attempt to introduce some measure of euthanasia, nowhere but Darwin has gone the whole way.
The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1996 permits people in long term pain, after evaluation by a psychiatrist, to end their lives by lethal injection or pills. A doctor and a specialist in the patient's disease" have to join the psychiatrist in signing an agreement that euthanasia is permissible. Three people have so far availed of the procedure.
But there have been furious attempts to quash the legislation. A Federal MP from the state of Victoria, Mr Kevin Andrews, has put forward a private member's bill to outlaw the territory's legislation. There is also a challenge in the High Court, based in Canberra, brought by an otherwise unlikely coalition of doctors, lawyers, and aboriginal groups. (To traditional aboriginal people, death is the most sacred and awful of mysteries, and to tamper with it in any way is a profound disaster.)
In fact, the Territory is self governing in most matters, as are the six Australian states. Hence it could introduce the euthanasia provision under its health arrangements. But Mr Andrews argues that the Northern Territory Legislative Council has in fact introduced euthanasia as a legal possibility for all Australians - since there is nothing to stop people elsewhere in the nation coming to the Northern Territory. One of the three people who has died so far was in this category, he says.
Both the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, and the Labour Opposition leader, Mr Kim Beazley, have given their verbal support to the Andrews bill.
The legacy of euthanasia in the Northern Territory was seen by its architect, the improbably named Marshall Perron, as his gift to his fiefdom. Perron, a dynamic character who was the territory's chief minister for many years, left office in 1995. He decided this would be his memorial, the right to choose for people in continuous severe pain. The measure squeaked through by one vote after its debate in the Northern Territory legislature.
The main proponent of the legislation, Dr Philip Nitschke, who has been given the unfortunate so briquet "Doctor Death", has been challenged fiercely, by the local branch of the Australian Medical Association. The legislation has also been criticised by Pope John Paul.
DR Nitschke says the delays and dispute have been additional ordeals for the patients who want to avail themselves of the legislation. "We are pessimistic about the outcome in the Senate and this has caused something of an unseemly rush," he told The Irish Times. "I have six patients, some local and some from elsewhere in Australia, currently anxious to use the legislation before, as appears likely, it is quashed. These challenges have had a devastating effect on them."