CANBERRA - The families of two people who died under the world's only assisted suicide law made an emotional last ditch appeal to parliament yesterday to let dying Australians keep the right to kill themselves.
With parliament's upper house Senate due to decide the law's fate on Monday, the widow of the first person to die under the law begged politicians not to overturn "the most compassionate piece of legislation in the whole world". The widower of the second person to use the law said it allowed his terminally ill wife to die with peace and dignity.
The Senate is expected on Monday to narrowly pass a bill - quashing the controversial law. The bill was introduced by Mr Kevin Andrews, a backbencher and member of a Christian morals faction within Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal Party.
Ms Judy Dent, whose husband Bob was the first to use the law when he died in September after a computer delivered fatal injection, said senators should heed the views of the vast majority of Australians who support euthanasia.