The state of Victoria passed a law in 2017 to legalise assisted dying, which went into effect this June (AFP Photo/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT) |
A 61-year-old cancer patient has become the first person in over two decades to die under controversial assisted dying laws in Australia, a charity said.
Kerry
Robertson died in July, three months after the mother-of-two ceased treatment
for metastatic breast cancer, the support group Go Gentle Australia said
Sunday.
The state
of Victoria passed a law in 2017 to legalise the practice, which went into
effect this June. Other states are now expected to follow suit.
Robertson,
who ended her life in the southeastern town of Bendigo, was diagnosed with
breast cancer in 2010 -- which then spread into her bones, lung, brain, and
liver.
She decided
to stop receiving treatment in March when the side effects of chemotherapy were
no longer manageable and took medication to end her life after a 26-day
approval process, the charity said.
"It
was quick, she was ready to go. Her body was failing her and she was in
incredible pain. She'd been in pain for a long time," her daughter Jacqui
said in a statement.
Euthanasia
had previously been legal in Australia's Northern Territory, but those laws
were overturned in a contentious move by the federal government in 1997.
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