VIC: Euthanasia campaigner "using" death of patient Tighe

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-1999
VIC: Euthanasia campaigner "using" death of patient Tighe

Right to Life president MARGARET TIGHE says voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr RODNEY SYME
is exploiting the death of one of his patients to gain sympathy for his cause.

Mrs TIGHE's comments have come after Dr SYME, president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society
of Victoria, revealed to The Age newspaper that he reported the suicide of one of his patients
to the state coroner in a bid to reopen the euthanasia debate.

The patient, a 52-year-old woman, had multiple sclerosis for 30 years, no longer had
control of her bladder or her left arm, and needed help eating and washing.

The woman ended her life by refusing to take food and drink, and was put under sedation for
a week before dying.

Dr SYME reported the death to the coroner on two grounds: that it was a suicide and because
the medical treatment may have hastened it.

Mrs TIGHE says Dr SYME made much of the circumstances of the woman's death, and was clearly
using it to gain public sympathy for his cause.

AAP RTV imc/er/kbw

KEYWORD: DIE VIC (MELBOURNE)

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