April 26, 2024

Nancy Crick died without cancer, says autopsy

The long-awaited autopsy of Australian euthanasia icon Nancy Crick has found that she did not have cancer at the time of her suicide. The 69-year-old grandmother became a controversial figure in 2002 when she claimed that she was terminally ill with cancer and wanted to die. She was strongly supported by the leading promoter of assisted suicide in Australia, Dr Philip Nitschke.

The news did not unsettle Dr Nitschke, who knew before her death that she was not terminally ill with cancer. “To Nancy’s mind it didn’t really matter and I guess to my mind it didn’t matter either,” he commented. “She was a dying woman… I think we should have been much clearer about the fact prior to her death that there was confusion about the unresolvable symptoms that she was getting. The euthanasia movement is about right of choice. Nancy had a choice.”