Another Australian state legalizes voluntary euthanasia

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Voluntary euthanasia has become legal in a fifth Australian state, more than 20 years after the country repealed the world’s first mercy killing law for the terminally ill. Queensland’s Parliament passed the law with 61 of the state’s 93 lawmakers voting in favor. New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state, is now the only state that doesn’t allow assisted suicide. The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory do not have the same rights as states and the Federal Parliament has barred them from making such laws. The Northern Territory in 1995 became the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. But the Australian Parliament overturned that law in 1997.