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25 years ago: World’s first legal euthanasia (by self injection)

On Sunday 22 September 1996, at around 3pm, the 66-year old Bob Dent (suffering from prostate cancer) pressed the ‘YES’ button on the Deliverance Euthanasia Machine to activate a lethal injection. He died peacefully in the arms of his wife Judy, in his home in Darwin.

Bob Dent was the first person to use the Voluntary Euthanasia legislation of the Northern Territory (called the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act) and, as such, became the first person in the world to die from a legal, voluntary lethal injection. Very ill with prostate cancer, Bob said he’d had enough of his illness and wanted out.

Read the full story on the website of Exit International: Bob Dent – Exit International.

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