Media in Australia and New Zealand have been reporting that Fiji is considering setting up a euthanasia clinic. They did so on the strength of information provided by Dr Philip Nitschke, a prominent Australian euthanasia advocate, without checking out his story with the Fiji Government.
A spokesperson for the Fiji government, Permanent secretary for Information Sharon Smith-Johns, denies that Fiji has any plans to open a euthanasia clinic. She said said none of the overseas media contacted the Fijian government before running reports that Fiji is considering opening a euthanasia clinic.
Smith-Johns said the Attorney General’s chambers received a submission from a Doctor Nitschke, in August last year, and as with all submissions received by the chambers, details of the proposal were requested.
Speaking in Radio Australia Nitschke said the Fiji government was considering his euthanasia proposal which could earn the country “considerable income” if it went ahead.
“It’ll be a very similar proposal to the one that’s operated for sometime in Switzerland, and what it would mean is that people who were seriously ill, we’re talking about people who are in fact terminally ill would be able to make a much easier journey from countries in the Pacific, such as Australia or New Zealand to Fiji, where at a particular clinic they would be able to be given the best of the end of life drugs, which if they wish to take they could, and I suppose if they didn’t, they wouldn’t.”
“It would allow a person to have access to a peaceful death in an environment where the process was sanctioned as opposed to a situation as we have here in Australia and some other countries, of course, where such procedures are not possible, because of the legality of the issue,” said Nitscke
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Additional reading- Methodist church in Fiji welcomes rejection of euthanasia clinic proposal
- Fiji says no to euthanasia clinic
- Nitschkes proposes "hasten death service " for Nadi
News category: Asia Pacific, Top Story.
