单选题
When the vote was finally taken, it was 3:45 in the
morning, After six months of arguing and the final 16 hours of hot parliamentary
debates, Australia's Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the
world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wished to
die. The measure was passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost at the
same time word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by
John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent
it on through the group's on-line service, Death Net. Hofsess said: "We posted
bulletins all day long, because of course this isn't just something that
happened in Australia. It's world history." The full import may
take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left
physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical
implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief; others, including churches,
right-to, live groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked
the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In
Australia—where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing
community attitudes have all played their part—other states are going to
consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In America and Canada,
where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for
the dominoes to start failing. Under the new Northern Territory
law, an adult patient can request death—probably by a deadly injection or
pill—to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill
by two doctors. After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign
a certificate of request. 48 hours later, the wish for death can be met. For
Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT
Rights of the Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the
haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition.
"I'm not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I am afraid of
is how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for
oxygen and clawing at their masks." he says.
单选题
From the second paragraph we learn that ______.
A. the objection to euthanasia is diminishing in some countries
B. physicians and citizens have the same view on euthanasia
C. technological changes are chiefly responsible for the new law
D. it takes time to appreciate the significance of laws passed