Clinic slams Australia over assisted-death ban

A MEMBER of a Swiss clinic which is to help Australia’s oldest scientist end his life has said it is an atrocity that Australia did not allow the 104-year-old to die at home.

David Goodall, who caused a stir two years ago when his university tried unsuccessfully to have him declared unfit to be on campus, does not have a terminal illness but says his quality of life has deteriorated and he wants to die.

“But because he is not terminally ill he has to travel to Switzerland,” Ruedi Habegger, a co-founder of Eternal Spirit, one of a range of foundations in Switzerland that assist people who want to end their lives, said.

“This is the atrocity of it all. This old man should be able to die at home in his bed, like we can do here in Switzerland,” he said in an interview.

Goodall is due to end his life at Eternal Spirit’s clinic near Basel on Thursday.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries around the world and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria legalised it last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect from June next year, applies only to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

According to Swiss law, meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death.

“If a completely healthy person comes and says, I am of sound mind and I have decided to die, the reason is none of your business, theoretically,” Habegger said.

He pointed out, though, that it was very uncommon for healthy people to ask to die, and most doctors would balk at taking part in the process if they did.

“I don’t want to go to Switzerland,” Goodall told broadcaster ABC before he set off on his final voyage on Wednesday, adding that he had to “to get the opportunity of suicide which the Australian system does not permit”.

“I feel very resentful,” the honorary research associate at Perth’s Edith Cowan University said.

Habegger said Goodall was travelling with a friend, who would be with him until the end. – AFP