AUSTRALIA'S House of Representatives adopted a bill yesterday to quash the world's first voluntary euthanasia law, which came into effect last July in the Northern Territory.
The upper house, the Senate, is not expected to vote on the bill until next year but if it follows suit and backs the anti euthanasia bill, the territory law would be rescinded.
The national parliament can overturn laws in Australia's territories, but not its six states.
In September, Australian cancer patient Mr Bob Dent (66) became the first and only person to use the voluntary euthanasia law in Darwin, the Northern Territory capital, through a computer delivered injection.
The law allows terminally ill people who meet strict guidelines to kill themselves with a lethal injection or pills and for doctors to assist their suicide.
The anti euthanasia bill uses the federal parliament's constitutional superiority over the territory to overturn the law. But the bill was not government policy.
A backbencher introduced it and the major parties gave the House of Representatives a rare conscience vote, contrasting the usual routine of members simply toeing their party line. The bill was passed by 88 votes to 35.
"Strong, differing points of view which were sincerely held were able to be put in a way which was very tolerant," the bill's sponsor, Liberal National government member Mr Kevin Andrews, told reporters after the late night session.
Nevertheless, the bill provoked some strong emotions.
"My life belongs to me; it does not belong to the state," a Labour MP, Mr Bob Brown, angrily told the house.
Opponents launched a last minute challenge to the bill on the grounds it constitutionally discriminated against the territories.
Supporters of an unsuccessful amendment to extend the bill's remit to states - effectively making it unworkable - also pointed out that opinion polls have regularly shown some 75 per cent of Australians backing euthanasia.
The territory law is also being challenged in Australia's High Court by a coalition of doctors, church and aboriginal leaders.