Sydney - A terminally ill Australian woman's television advertisement, in which she asks for the right to end her life, will be aired tomorrow despite opposition by anti-euthanasia groups.
The advertisement featuring Ms June Burns (59), who has bladder cancer, has rekindled the euthanasia debate in Australia after the 1997 overthrow of the country's, and world's, only voluntary euthanasia law in the Northern Territory. Euthanasia now is illegal in Australia.
In the advertisement, Ms Burns, a mother of four, chokes back tears as she explains her terminal medical condition and how three daily does of morphine does not take away her pain.
The Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations (FACTS) yesterday approved the advertisement for airing, starting in the most populous state of New South Wales. Anti-euthanasia groups oppose the advertisement, arguing it will encourage suicides not just for the terminally ill, and questioned Ms Burns' psychiatric state. "The reality is that once you have opened up euthanasia for someone, you have opened it up for everyone," said Mr Greg Smith, of Right To Life.