Australian who won landmark right-to-die case passes away

Sep 20, 2009, 23:42 GMT

Sydney - A paralyzed Australian who five weeks ago won a landmark court case for the right to starve himself to death has died, his lawyer said Monday.

Former stockbroker Christian Rossiter, 49, became a paraplegic last year and had described his life in a Perth nursing home as a 'living hell.'

The court ruled that his nursing home carers had a legal duty to obey his demand that they stop feeding him.

'I think Christian will be remembered as someone who was very brave and took up a fight which will give a lot of people comfort,' lawyer John Hammond told a local television station. 'Essentially, he won the right to refuse food and medication so he could die if he wanted to.'

Hammond said the court had not ruled on the rights and wrongs of euthanasia, but about the right to refuse food or medical treatment.

He said Rossiter had asked nurses at least 40 times to stop feeding and hydrating him through a tube to his stomach before the matter was resolved in court.

Mercy killing campaigner Philip Nitschke, head of Exit International, insisted Rossiter should have been given the right to a swift death through fatal drugs but said the legal ruling was important.

'The next frontier, if you like, will be when a person who isn't a quadriplegic says, 'Well, on the basis of that ruling I still can't get access to the best drugs so I'm going to stop eating and drinking'.'