Australian 'Right-To-Die' Woman Kills Herself
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
May 23, 2002

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - A 70-year-old bowel cancer sufferer whose publicly stated intention to kill herself kindled the euthanasia debate in Australia has taken her life.

In the presence of 21 "friends, family and supporters," Nancy Crick Wednesday night took a draught she described as tasting "awful," followed by a liqueur and half a cigarette, and then died, euthanasia campaigner Sandra Milne confirmed by phone early Thursday.

Milne said the former barmaid was dead half an hour after taking the drug. She could not confirm it was Nembutal, a powerful barbiturate favored by euthanasia-supporting doctors, although Crick had earlier said she was aiming to acquire some.

Nembutal, used by vets to put down sick animals, is only available on the black market in Australia.

Milne, who belongs to a pro-euthanasia group called Exit, said she was not at the bedside herself.

Anyone present during a suicide can be prosecuted, according to legal advice taken by the pro-euthanasia lobby, on the grounds that being on hand could be construed as lending support, and therefore "assisting."

In Crick's Queensland state, the offense can carry a life jail sentence.

Exit earlier called on supporters to volunteer to be alongside Crick when she killed herself, arguing that the larger the group of people there, the less likely the chance of prosecution.

A spokeswoman for the Queensland Police said from Brisbane police were notified about the suicide early Thursday morning. "Normal police procedures are being followed in relation to Mrs. Crick's death. A coroner will be advised."

An official at Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's office said the premier would not be involved in any legal inquiry, but the coroner was investigating the death and would decide on any possible further action. Beattie had expressed his condolences with Crick's family, spokesman Steve Keating said.

Voluntary Euthanasia Society spokesman Rodney Syme told Australian radio that campaigners were watching with great interest to see how the authorities would react.

"The legislation says it's a crime to assist [a suicide], it doesn't define what assisting is," he said, adding that in his view it couldn't be a crime to be present "for the purposes of giving emotional support, comfort and to say goodbye."

Exit's "Nancy Crick project" was overseen by Dr. Philip Nitschke, a euthanasia campaigner who helped four people die under 1996 legislation permitting doctor-assisted suicide in another part of Australia, Northern Territory.

The law was subsequently overturned by the federal government, and Nitschke has continued to spearhead the campaign for "right-to-die" legislation across Australia.

Milne said that Nitschke, too, was not at Crick's bedside when she died.

Online record

Crick's determination to kill herself while highlighting the pro-euthanasia cause led her to record her last months on an Internet diary.

The entries gave glimpses of a life of suffering. Diarrhea, pain and nausea were common, and Crick said her weight dropped from 65 kilograms to 27.

At one point early last month, however, Crick said she had decided to give palliative care a chance, and checked into a private Catholic hospital for a week. She came out saying the pain had been eased, but she was keeping her options open.

In one of her last online diary entries, Crick berated a pro-life government minister who was instrumental in having the Northern Territory law repealed.

If that law was still in force, she said, she could have killed herself in the Northern Territory, and "my friends could have been with me without having to be worried about being locked up for years if they even hold my hand."

She asked the minister, Kevin Andrews, to explain to her "why it is that a dying person like me can't get help to end their life when things get too difficult and why I have to sneak off like a criminal and die alone."

Irrespective of the law, she wrote, "I'll go ahead soon anyway and my friends will be with me."

There were no entries for the last few days, but in a recorded statement made before her death, Crick said the Internet site had enabled her to get hold of lethal drugs that would help her to die "peacefully, easily and reliably."

"Several kind people provided the drugs which I know will put me to sleep and end my life."

Milne said Thursday she had last seen Crick a week ago. "She was in terrible pain, and unbelievably thin - bones with skin on. I'm surprised she lasted another week before doing it."

Milne said she believed the pro-euthanasia campaign had benefited from the episode. Crick had received thousands of letters, around 95 per cent of them in favor of her right "to finish her life when she sees it as no longer being valuable."

'Vulnerable'

Queensland Right to Life president Dr. Donna Purcell said she was saddened to learn of Crick's death, as she would be to hear of any suicide.

Not knowing Crick's medical state well, it was impossible to say whether she had taken full advantage of the palliative care option, she said by phone from Brisbane.

Purcell said she wasn't certain the Crick case would have helped take forward the broader drive to legalize euthanasia, as the law outlawing the practice remained in place. But she conceded that "pressure will escalate."

Legalizing euthanasia would make the sick and elderly vulnerable to exploitation, the pro-life campaigner said.

"The law's there to protect everybody. If the government takes it away, it will do a lot more harm than good - that's if it does any good at all, which is highly questionable."

A colleague of Purcell, Graham Preston, called for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Crick's death.

The Netherlands last year became the first country to legalize euthanasia. Belgium's parliament followed suit last week.

Although proponents of euthanasia advocate the right of a person to die peacefully, a 1999 report in the New England Journal of Medicine recorded a range of problems occurring at doctor-assisted suicides.

These included difficulty inserting an intravenous line, vomiting, convulsions, a lengthy interval between the administration of the drug and death, failure to induce a coma, and a patient awakening out of the induced coma.

An editorial accompanying the study said the information "will come as a shock to the many members of the public ... who have never considered that the procedures involved in physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia might sometimes add to the suffering they are meant to alleviate."
See also: Campaigners Rally Around Right-To-Die Woman (Mar. 26, 2002)
Australian Woman Wants To Kill Herself In Bid To Legalize Euthanasia (Feb. 8, 2002)
'Legalization of Euthanasia Will Harm Most Vulnerable' (Apr. 11, 2001)

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