Australia: Suicide to be shown on TV

Television stations from as far away as Japan and the United States have shown interest in filming the suicide of terminally-ill Gold Coast woman Nancy Crick.

She told a public meeting of around 300 people yesterday she planned to take her own life on or sometime after April 10, witnessed by 20 friends.

Supporters of Mrs Crick have sold keys to her house over the Internet in a bid to frustrate attempts by police to find those present at her death and charge them with assisting her suicide.

John Edge, a Queensland representative of Northern Territory-based pro-euthanasia organisation EXIT (Australia), today said one television station was a frontrunner to film the suicide.

"Negotiations have been underway with one of the channels to do a segment with Nancy," said Mr Edge. He did not name the television station but said media interest had been intense and not only confined to Australia.

"NHK from Japan wanted to send a team out to do a preview with Nancy and there's offers coming in from America," he said. "I suppose it's fairly obvious that someone is going to start offering money but what happens if they start doing that, I don't know." Any financial consideration for interviews or filming her actual death was up to Mrs Crick and her family, Mr Edge said.

Henry L. Marconi PRAVDA.Ru Sydney