General Article
January 15, 2015
Euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke loses legal battle to practice medicine
Prominent euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke has lost a legal battle to protect his registration to practice medicine after a tribunal ruled he posed a serious risk to the public and could undermine confidence in the medical profession. But Dr Nitschke has vowed to appeal the decision by the Northern Territory Health Professional Review Tribunal, saying […]
November 28, 2014
Precedent cited in Philip Nitschke case overturned
Amy Corderoy, The Sydney Morning Herald
A controversial ruling that a doctor has a duty to help strangers who are not their patients has been overturned in the Supreme Court. The decision has the potential to change the way doctors are expected to behave in emergencies, and might have ramifications for euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, who has been suspended for failing […]
November 21, 2014
Ethical duty to rescue: court of appeal
Much discussion followed the 2013 decision Medical Board of Australia v Dekker [2013] WASAT 182, a conduct matter following an incident in which a practitioner failed to stop and render assistance after a ‘near miss’ incident involving her motor vehicle and a second motor vehicle. For that earlier decision see http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/wa/WASAT/2013/182.html In a judgment delivered […]
November 21, 2014
AMA is out of step with the community by opposing voluntary euthanasia
Terry Sweetman, The Courier Mail
POPE Francis was preaching to the immovable last week when he declared assisted suicide was a symptom of a “throw-away culture’’. But opinion polls suggest that, like the Catholic ruling on contraception, injunctions against voluntary euthanasia might increasingly be more honoured in the breach than the observance. The Pope doggedly called on doctors to take […]
November 18, 2014
Nembutal Patient Investigated by AHPRA
Flynn Murphy, The Medical Observer
THE sister of a motor neurone disease patient who took her own life says she was targeted by AHPRA investigators [led by Brett Judd who also goes by the assumed name of ‘Franklin Lebrowski’] who rummaged through her personal effects and recorded an interview with her without permission. Janine Wilson, 58-year-old sister of the late […]
November 13, 2014
Nitschke trial has ‘valuable purpose’
Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke is glad the issue of ‘rational suicide’ is being publicly debated, despite one case leading to his suspension. After a three-day hearing, the Northern Territory Health Professional Review Tribunal reserved its decision on his appeal against his suspension by the Medical Board of Australia. Dr Nitschke is yet to […]