Calls for change 25 years on from world’s first voluntary euthanasia of NT man Bob Dent

Twenty five years ago Bob Dent became the first person to die by legally-sanctioned voluntary euthanasia. Today, the NT is one of the last remaining places in the country that it is prohibited.

ON September 22, like every day, Judy Dent will remember her husband Bob as a “cheerful” and “optimistic” man.

This year, however, it will also be the day that Ms Dent – and the rest of the world – marks 25 years since Bob Dent became the first person to die by legally-sanctioned voluntary euthanasia.

“I can hardly believe it has been so long but the calendar doesn’t lie,” Ms Dent said.

“I remember having a combination of feelings. I was happy that his pain had ended.”

Judy Dent’s husband, Bob Dent, became the first person to legally die by euthanasia. Photograph: Che Chorley

The event was made possible after the Territory’s landmark Rights of the Terminally Ill Act had come into effect months earlier, in July 1996.

But it was not long before those who opposed the law took action.

Liberal backbencher Kevin Andrews, who is today the longest continuously serving member, passed a bill in 1996 to strip the territories of their right to enact their own euthanasia laws.

As Queensland last week became the fifth state in Australia to legalise voluntary assisted dying, it leaves the Territory, which once led the charge on giving terminally-ill people control over the end of their lives, as one of the last remaining places it is prohibited.

“As each state in turn passes a law, my status becomes even less equal,” Ms Dent said.

“I chose to become an Australian. I didn’t expect to be a lesser citizen because I live in the NT.”

It was under the watch of then Chief Minister Marshall Perron that the original voluntary euthanasia bill was introduced to the Territory parliament in May, 1995.

Mr Perron said he never thought legislation would ever gain as much national and international attention as it did. “I was just concerned about people who died in terrible conditions and I felt that they should have an option to advance their death if that was their wish,” he said.

Mr Perron said it was “a tragedy” that 25 years on, Territorians did not have the right to discuss the issue in its parliament.

Chief Minister Marshall Perron leaves a media doorstop after the Assembly passes the Euthanasia Bill on May 25, 1995. Pic Peter Gandolfi

“It’s a tragedy for all of those people who would have used the legislation in the Northern Territory had it stayed on foot,” he said.

“There are hundreds of millions of people across the world today that have access to assistance to die.

“Why one more day should go by without the federal parliament restoring those powers to the Territory is a tragedy – there is no justification whatsoever for the territories to be denied the power anymore.”

In August 2021, CLP senator Sam McMahon drafted a bill to give Territorians the right to introduce its own voluntary assisted dying law.

However, with Ms McMahon’s career in federal politics set to come to a close at the next election, and with the Bill still before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee, it remains unclear whether her attempt will be successful.

“It has taken a long time, but slowly the states are passing legislation specifically for their own jurisdictions,” Ms Dent said.

“It is time for the federal government to undo the euthanasia laws bill and restore full citizenship rights to the people who live in the NT and the ACT.” Mr Andrews is set to leave parliament at the next election after losing a preselection challenge for the seat of Menzies. A spokesman for Mr Andrews did not answer questions from the NT News, but said: “Mr Andrews views in relation to euthanasia remain the same”.

In his last letter, Bob Dent wrote: “What right has anyone, because of their own religious faith (to which I don’t subscribe), to demand that I behave according to their rules until some omniscient doctor decides that I must have had enough and goes ahead and increases my morphine until I die?”