Euthanasia Call Renewed
Illawarra Mercury
Monday October 25, 1999
The doctor who supported a cancer patient's quest for euthanasia yesterday renewed his call for national right-to-die legislation, despite his patient going into remission.
June Burns, 59, went on national television in March pleading for the right to be euthanased.
Doctors have now told her she is in remission and could live for another two years.
Mrs Burns said she did not want to die, but was suffering immense pain.
``I want to live," she said. ``I really want to survive through that (the millennium), and I have a chance to survive through it.
``I don't want to die."
Anti-euthanasia groups and the medical establishment have used the news of Mrs Burns' treatment to warn against any future legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.
Australian Medical Association federal president David Brand said had euthanasia been available, Joy Burns and her family would have ben robbed of important time together.
But high profile doctor Philip Nitschke said while he did not advise Mrs Burns to take her life in March, he still supported calls for national laws legalising voluntary euthanasia.
Dr Nitschke legally euthanased four patients under the short-lived Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 1996-97.
``I supported Mrs Burns in her quest to obtain drugs (to kill herself) ... she still has those drugs," he said.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury
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