Vienna - The 104-year-old Australian scientist who has
travelled to Switzerland to end his life with medical assistance
hopes that his highly publicised move will change the thinking about
euthanasia.
Ecologist David Goodall is scheduled to die on Thursday in the care
of the end-of-life clinic Lifecircle in Basel.
Goodall told a press conference in Basel that he hoped his story
would lead to more liberal laws in Australia, where assisted suicide
is not legal.
"I think there probably will be a step in the right direction," he
said. "Everyone over the middle age, unquestioned, should have the
right to end their life as and when they chose," he added.
Goodall tried unsuccessfully to end his life in Australia after
suffering a fall two months ago.
Exit International, a euthanasia advocacy group of which Goodall has
been a member for 20 years, raised almost 20,000 dollars to cover the
professor's travel costs to Switzerland.
Goodall did not express any signs of nervousness or last-minute
doubts about his decision.
When he was asked what music he would like to hear in his last hour,
he sang the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in German:
"Joy, beauteous, godly spark / Daughter of Elysium / Drunk with fire,
O Heavenly One / We come unto your sacred shrine."