Nitskche;beyond good and evil.
Matthew X
profrv at nex.net.au
Sun May 9 21:42:48 PDT 1999
Euthanasia advocate takes legal action against Qld police
Euthanasia advocate Doctor Phillip Nitschke is trying to force Queensland
Police to destroy medical records and correspondence seized after the
suicide of Gold Coast woman Nancy Crick.
Dr Nitschke says he is taking legal action in the Northern Territory
although he hopes to have the proceedings transferred to the Supreme Court
in Queensland.
Dr Nitschke says police seized a large amount of material, including
documents relating to the group Exit Australia, outside the terms of their
warrant.
"They've got something like 99.9 per cent we estimate of the 50 megabytes
or gigabytes of material that they've taken in the form of letters from our
offices in Adelaide and in Darwin and of course John Edge's place too in
the Gold Coast - Exit material we want that destroyed," he said.
Dr Nitschke claims the police involved in the seizure of the material
overstepped the terms of their warrant.
"We want a demonstrated ability that we can guarantee, a demonstrated
guarantee that the material that was taken that is not compliant with the
conditions of the warrant has in fact been destroyed," he said.
"They gave us copies of the electronic material back but interestingly
they've kept all the written material, they've kept all the written
material, they've kept all the other films and all the tapes, they've kept
that."
Stem cell debate hots up
The first night of debate on embryonic stem cell research has raised
emotions in the federal parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson says those who have reservations are
being unfairly accused of lacking compassion.(not to mention
logic,utilitarianism and rational thought,triage,etc etc.)
Liberal backbencher Christopher Pyne says embryonic stem cell research is a
perversity of the IVF program.
"If it is not a human being what on earth is it," he said.
But member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek says she rejects Mr Pyne's view there
is no difference between an embryo that is five days or six months old.
"The difference is in later pregnancy losing a baby compared with in early
pregnancy at five days not becoming pregnant and to argue that the
difference is negligible I think misses the point entirely," she said.
Support
Some federal MPs are advancing their calls to split the Government's stem
cell bill.
But seven of the nine speakers last night say they support the legislation.
Shadow Health Minister Stephen Smith says those who approve of invitro
fertilization should have no problem with the bill.
"It's a necessary consequence of that decision that there will be spare or
excess embryos," he said.
Proponents of embryonic stem cell research are worried if the contentious
provisions are separated, their case will be weakened.
Liberal MP Bruce Bilson supports the legislation but says all views should
be respected.
"If not I, someone with my active support will be moving a splitting of the
bill," he said.
Opponent Christopher Pyne says the legislation relies on a list of unproven
possibilities for science.
He and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson have hit back at those who say
they're failing to alleviate human suffering.
"I have faced some awful truly awful ethical decisions myself about the
level of medical intervention that we ought to persist with or not to
persist with," he said.
The Federal Opposition leader Simon Crean says a Labor conscience vote will
still apply if the bill is separated.
MacFarlane
The Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane has warned the Government's stem cell
bill is in danger of falling over.
He has accused the biotechnology industries of creating unnecessary
division on the issue.
The Minister told an industry dinner in Melbourne last night, some are
already trying to move the goalposts by floating ideas such as therapeutic
cloning.
He says the divisions are jeopardising the entire gameplan. END.
Euthanising certain liberal party nincompoops seems called for.
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