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
Hospice care in the United States End-of-life care is more likely to be included in the general term "palliative care". The first hospices are believed to have originated in the 11th century, when for the first time the terminally ill were permitted into places dedicated to treatment by Crusaders. In the early 14th century, the order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem opened the first hospice in Rhodes, meant to provide refuge for travelers and care for the ill and dying. The hospice practice languished until revived in the 17th century in France by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul