SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, May 23, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Nancy Crick, 69, an advocate of doctor-assisted suicide, killed herself by means of a drug overdose on Wednesday, rather than submit to palliative care to ease the discomfort of her impending death from bowel cancer. Crick’s Internet publicity diary described her suffering from diarrhea, pain, nausea and weight loss. In April, she tried a week of palliative care in a private Catholic hospital, and “came out saying the pain had been eased,” CNS News reports. However, Crick’s determination to kill herself soon returned, and euthanasia proponents claimed she was racked by pain during her last days. The pro-euthanasia group Exit’s “Nancy Crick project” was led by Dr. Philip Nitschke, Australia’s answer to Dr. Kevorkian. Nitschke killed four patients under 1996 legislation permitting doctor-assisted suicide in the country’s Northern Territory—a law that was promptly overturned by Prime Minister John Howard’s centre-right federal government. Twenty-one witnesses of Crick’s death could face life in prison. Voluntary Euthanasia Society spokesman Rodney Syme said campaigners are watching to see how authorities react. To read CNSNews coverage see: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200205\FOR20020523a.html To read a New England Journal of Medicine article on problems with legalized assisted-suicide in the Netherlands see: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/342/8/551