Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 11. The effect of the law was nullified in 1997 by the federal Parliament of Australia which passed the "Euthanasia Laws Act 1997". The Act continues on the Territory's statute books. Dr Philip Nitschke founded Exit International in response to the overturning of the Act. While voluntary euthanasia had previously been condoned officially in the Netherlands and the US state of Oregon, the act was the first time that a legislative assembly passed a law explicitly legalising euthanasia. The Act allowed a terminally ill patient to end their life with medical assistance, either by the direct involvement of a physician
Belgium in "the long nineteenth century" 1905. As the independent state of Belgium consolidated after the Revolution, the issue of a consensus language in the country became an increasingly important political question. At the start of the period, French was the dominant language, and was the only language that was approved for use in legal and government business anywhere in the country. It was also the language of the economic and social elite, even in Flanders. By the 1860s, with Flemish dialects in decline, increasing numbers of Flemish people of all social classes were bilingual, paralleling a similar decline in northern France. However, partly inspired by