Philip Nitschke (aka Dr Death) launches ‘Voluntary Euthanasia Party’ to fight Australian Federal Election

The following review was written by Paul Russell (pictured left), Executive Director of HOPE, which works to prevent euthanasia and assisted suicide. It is reproduced from his website. I have appended links to some of my own previous articles on Philip Nitschke (pictured below right). 

You’ve got to give Dr Philip Nitschke some credit for telling it like it really is. Whilst Australia’s state-based euthanasia lobby groups and their state-based MP supporters argue for limited legislation with so-called safeguards, Nitschke has consistently advocated for legalisation of euthanasia in a virtually unrestricted fashion - save only for the exclusion of minors and people with mental incapacity.

Some of the state-based groups have formally distanced themselves from Nitschke and Exit because of this; while for others, the relationship is a little less clear.  While they work to make their approach seem palatable to the public and polity alike, Nitschke’s presence is a source of frustration because his is the logical end of even the most minimalistic approach.

So when, in the midst of the Australian Federal Election campaign Nitschke argues, on the pages of the Canberra Times newspaper, that euthanasia makes sense on the basis of economics – that older Australians choosing to die would help restrain the health budget – it must have these other groups cringing.

“…no one is saying we should put people down against their will, we are suggesting it is a worthwhile debate to have - especially if hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in the health budget could be saved…”

Nitschke is busily promoting his latest venture, The Voluntary Euthanasia Party. He is standing as a Senate candidate in the Australian Capital Territory. Pundits give the party little chance of success. Like other micro-parties, it’s really about promotion of a cause.

But when Nitschke (right) says, “hundreds of thousands, if not millions” saved from the health budget, he’s talking about a lot of people dying by lethal injection. Again, this runs contrary to the state-based organisations assertions that euthanasia is only really there for the few. When he observes, that the economic argument is, “so vexed that advocates have dared no mention its name” he’s really only stating the obvious.

His is a very dangerous utilitarian argument that’s only likely to be genuinely interesting to those who see a possible economic gain of another kind – the early exit of a loved one and the early distribution of their estate. In terms of Elder Abuse this is El Dorado! But it also casts the state as an abuser – not to make money but to save it. Heaven knows what affect this kind of news has on the elderly!

The day before the Canberra Times article was published, the Australian Greens Party announced their own push for euthanasia. The Greens have pushed more euthanasia bills in Australian parliaments than anyone else. In the last Federal Parliament, Green’s Senator, Richard Di Natale tabled yet another bill to try and overturn the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 which, as a consequence, would allow euthanasia & assisted suicide debates to resurface in the ACT and The Northern Territory.

The Federal Senate has shown no mood for this kind of debate stretching back for many years now – but that’s no guarantee that the reticence will continue. This time, however, the Greens are taking a decidedly different attack.

Since the time of the operation of theRights of the Terminally Ill Act in the Northern Territory, a side debate has surfaced from time-to-time about the Federal Parliament’s powers in relation to euthanasia & assisted suicide and whether these powers could be extended beyond the territories to all states. It has been commonly accepted that, because the Criminal Codes in relation to homicide are state-based codes, that any exceptions (euthanasia & assisted suicide) are matters for the states.

Senator Di Natale is drawing a very long bow when he claims that the Commonwealth does hold powers to legislate under Section 51. The Guardian reports that, “the party had received legal advice from Senate clerks and constitutional experts saying that it was possible under section 51(xxiiiA) ofthe constitution, which allowed the Commonwealth to legislate for the provision of medical services.” Possible? Yes: but hardly likely.

To make such a claim, Di Natale would need to argue that euthanasia & assisted suicide are medical services when the reality is that they’re simply plain old killing! But we’ve seen this all before; the QuebecParliament is currently looking to legalise under the same false gambit for precisely the same reason – that they don’t have the necessary constitutional powers.

Of course, Nitschke applauded the Green’s initiative and, of course, both Nitschke and the Greens have said that there will be safeguards. But when both seem bent more on the publicity than the substance, it’s difficult not to be cynical.

Other articles on Nitschke on this blog

The question that the police have not asked and Nitschke has not answered

Why is the Home Secretary allowing Philip Nitschke back into Britain?

Philip Nitschke is back in the British Isles but is not finding a warm reception for his ‘how to commit suicide’ seminars

Nitschke announces to the media his latest scheme to help more Australians kill themselves

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The question that the police have not asked and Nitschke has not answered

Australia's ‘Dr Death’ Philip Nitschke (pictured left) visited the UK this week and held a ‘workshop’ at Dragon Hall in London providing instruction in how to commit suicide. About 150 people attended.

Not understandably the event evoked protests (see picture below) and some publicity.

In the week before Nitschke arrived I wrote to both the Home Secretary Theresa May and the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to advise them about his visit and to inform them that I believed his workshop would be in breach of the Suicide Act 1961, under which it is an offence to ‘encourage or assist’ suicide.

The Act does not require that a suicide is actually carried out in order to for a prosecution to take place.

Quite possibly as a result Nitschke was briefly detained at Gatwick airport but was eventually let in, presumably with the permission of the Home Secretary.

The police did not attend the workshop but referred the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service who decided that an investigation was not necessary.

At his workshop last Tuesday Nitschke, who is on public record as supporting suicide for ‘the depressed, the elderly bereaved, (and) the troubled teen’, gave advice on the sourcing, supply and use of barbiturates, nitrogen and other means that people could use to kill themselves.

A 2010 report demonstrated that coroners were aware of 51 Australians who had died from an overdose of Nembutal, a lethal barbiturate that Nitschke has promoted since the late 1990’s as ‘a peaceful way to die’.

But this fact seems to leave Nistchke unperturbed.

When previously confronted with the fact that 14 of the 51 were Australians in their 20’s and 30’s and only 11 of 38 investigated were known to have suffered chronic physical pain or a terminal illness he responded that ‘there will be some casualties’.

Currently Nitschke is the subject of an inquiry by the Australian Health Practitioners Agency (AHPA) in connection with an entity called 'Max Dog Brewing' which he has set up in order to sell nitrogen cylinders via his ‘Exit International’ website to people who wish to end their lives.

‘Max Dog Brewing’ is a business name for the company Northern Analytics Pty Ltd which has ‘Philip Haig Nitschke’ as its sole director.

Its website claims that nitrogen cylinders can be used for home brewing (nitrogen produces the bubbles in stout) but Nitschke has admitted on Australian national media that they can equally be used to commit suicide and there are much cheaper sources of the gas available for brewers.

I asked Nitschke on twitter this week how many nitrogen cylinders he has so far sold to members of the British public but thus far he has not responded.

However according to the Newstalk ZB in New Zealand 'Max Dog Brewing' has already sent shipments to both New Zealand and the UK.

So here we have a man who travels the world running ‘workshops’ in order to give information to people in order that they can commit suicide.

He tells them where they can obtain barbiturate drugs and sells kits for storage of the drugs and for measuring their concentration.

And he sells nitrogen cylinders via a company he has set up for the purpose along with the necessary kit to deliver the gas.

Quite why this does not amount to ‘encouraging and assisting’ suicide is a mystery to me.

What will it take, I wonder for the authorities - including the Home Secretary, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service - to do something about it?

I hope it is not the first barbiturate or nitrogen suicide of someone in the UK making use of his information and equipment. But I am not holding my breath. 

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Why did the Home Secretary let this man into the UK?

Last week I wrote to the Home Secretary Theresa May advising her about the visit of Australian assisted suicide enthusiast Philip Nitschke (pictured) and urging her to prevent him entering Britain to conduct a seminar on methods people can use to kill themselves.

Today Nitschke was detained at Gatwick airport, but eventually let into the country several hours later after having some ‘items’ temporarily confiscated by border police.

Nitschke (aka Dr Death) is an extremist and self-publicist whose presence in the UK puts the lives of vulnerable elderly, depressed and disabled people at grave risk.

His workshop in London on Tuesday under the auspices of ‘EXIT International’ now looks likely to go ahead and will advise on the sourcing, supply and use of barbiturates, helium, nitrogen and other means to commit suicide. 

In 2001, Nitschke saidthat his so-called ‘peaceful pill’ should be ‘available in the supermarket so that those old enough to understand death could obtain death peacefully at the time of their choosing’.

Asked who would qualify for access he replied that ‘all people qualify, not just those with the training, knowledge or resources to find out how to “give away” their life and someone needs to provide this knowledge training or resource necessary to anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, (and) the troubled teen’. 

A 2010 report demonstrated that coroners were aware of 51 Australians who had died from an overdose of Nembutal, a lethal barbiturate that Nitschke has promoted since the late 1990’s as ‘a peaceful way to die’.

Of the 38 cases fully investigated by coroners, only 11 people were known to have suffered chronic physical pain or a terminal illness before their deaths. Of the 51, 14 were Australians in their 20’s and 30’s.

Journalist Michael Cook put it to Nitschke in 2011 that ‘nearly two-thirds of the Australians who died after quaffing Nembutal... were under 60, and quite a few were in their 20s and 30s... [suggesting that] that mental illness or depression, not unbearable pain, was the reason for the suicide.’

Nitschke responded, ‘There will be some casualties... but this has to be balanced with the growing pool of older people who feel immense well-being from having access to this information, [about suicide drugs].’

In the past, Nitschke's workshops have focused on the use of drugs and gas to commit suicide, with around half the time being used to explain how Nembutal, a veterinary sedative, can be used to end life.  

He has explained to attendees the best way to administer drugs and gas in order to bring about death, and has advertised test kits for Nembutal.

Currently he is the subject of an inquiry by the Australian Health Practitioners Agency (AHPA) in connection with a company called 'Max Dog Brewing' which he has set up in order to sell nitrogen cylinders to the public. Its website claims that they can be used for home brewing (nitrogen produces the bubbles in stout) but Nitschke has admitted on Australian national media that they can equally be used to commit suicide.

The Suicide Act, as amended in 2009, states that ‘an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or an attempted suicide of another person’ is illegal, ‘whether or not a suicide, or an attempt at suicide, occurs’; the emphasis is on whether the accused ‘intended to encourage or assist suicide or an attempt at suicide’.

I believe that what Nitschke has done at previous workshops falls within the scope of these offences, because the information shared was capable of encouraging or assisting an attendee to commit suicide and the workshop was intended to encourage or assist people to commit suicide by offering them advice about the ‘best way’ of doing it.

Nitschke’s activities present a real and present risk to vulnerable members of the British public.

With the growing elderly population, failure of the care system and worsening economic situation a growing number of frail, disabled, ill and depressed people in Britain will be feeling under even greater pressure to end their lives, either for fear that they will not cope, or so as to be less of a burden to relatives.

They deserve better protection from suicide predators like Nitschke than they are currently getting.

Let’s hope that no vulnerable person is ‘helped’ over the edge by attending his seminar or as a result of the inevitable media hype that will accompany his visit.

Quite why the Home Secretary allowed him into the UK remains a mystery but Britain deserves an explanation.

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Man who inherits after assisting friend's suicide gets six months

One of the strongest arguments against legalising assisted suicide is that vulnerable people might feel pressure to end their lives so as not to be a burden to others.

Another strong argument is that those who might stand to gain from their deaths, financially or otherwise, could encourage or assist them to kill themselves or simply not stand in their way.

I was most interested therefore to read this story from Australia reported by Michael Cook on Bioedge this morning.

We are not given many details, and the man convicted would doubtless argue that he was 'wholly motivated by compassion', but it seems the judge thought otherwise.

The fact that the notorious Philip Nitschke thought the sentence 'harsh' was perhaps not unpredictable.

Unlike in Australia, assisting or encouraging a suicide in Britain carries only a discretionary sentence up to fourteen years and there have been no prosecutions resulting from the last 40 cases referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Perhaps we in Britain should be being a little more suspicious.

Queensland man jailed over assisted suicide

A Queensland man has become the first to be sentenced to a full-time jail term for assisting a suicide. Merin Nielson, 50, received a six-month sentence for supplying an 76-year-old friend, Frank Ward, with the lethal drug Nembutal in 2009.

Ward had various ailments and was distressed by a decade of looking after his late wife, but was not seriously ill. In 2007, after a minor stroke, he made Nielson, a former school teacher who is studying for a PhD in philosophy, a beneficiary of his will and gave him power of attorney. Nielson appears to have put him in touch with the suicide group Exit International, headed by activist Dr Philip Nitschke.

Finally Ward gave his friend $7,000 to buy the banned drug in Mexico. After Nielson returned, Ward was found dead in his apartment with a suicide note beside him.

Dr Nitschke said the sentence was harsh (although the maximum sentence is life imprisonment). 'The fact remains we are looking at people who are not violent criminals, they are acting out of compassion and love, meeting the full force of the law here, which is simply showing its inflexibility when it comes to this issue,' he said.

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Why is the Home Secretary allowing Philip Nitschke back into Britain?

The front page of last Wednesday’s Metro carried the story of an army veteran and his wife who committed suicide after becoming destitute (see ‘Driven to kill themselves by utter poverty’)

Mark and Helen Mullins are thought to have killed themselves at their rundown home after being reduced to despair as they struggled to live off just £57.50 a week. The couple had suffered a series of health and benefit setbacks and had had their 12-year-old daughter taken into care.

This tragic story is an extreme example of how some vulnerable families are feeling the economic pressure as the recession bites and living costs and unemployment rise.

Such people can be pushed by circumstances to take desperate measures and this sad case should heighten calls for more support and better protection for people living on the edge.

It is perhaps bitterly ironic therefore that Philip Nitschke (pictured) is entering Britain again this week to run a series of seminars instructing people how to commit suicide.

Nitshcke is an extremist and self-publicist who is on public record as supporting suicide for people including (in his own words) ‘the depressed, the elderly bereaved, the troubled teen’.

Between 12 and 21 November he will run a series of seminars in London, Eastbourne, Edinburgh and York in which he will give ‘practical information for end of life decision-making’.

I personally believe that these actions run contrary to the Suicide Act 1961 which prohibits the ‘encouraging or assisting’ of suicide.

I therefore wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May on 25 October asking her to exercise her powers to exclude Dr Nitschke on grounds of public policy and because his presence in the United Kingdom threatens a fundamental interest (namely the maintenance of the ‘rule of law’ and the maintenance of a law abiding community).

I urged her to take immediate action and, if no Exclusion Order was made, to provide me with full details surrounding the reason for the decision.

I have had no reply from the Home Secretary’s Office and to my knowledge no attempt has been made to detain Nitschke who is due to arrive this week.

The Home Secretary is, as we know, currently under pressure defending a decision to relax immigration controls. Nitschke’s arrival could well add to those difficulties.

With the growing elderly population, failure of the care system and worsening economic situation a growing number of frail, disabled, ill and depressed people in Britain, like the Mullins, will be feeling under even greater pressure to end their lives, either for fear that they will not cope, or so as to be less of a burden to relatives.

They deserve better protection from suicide predators like Nitschke than they are currently getting.

Let’s hope that no vulnerable person is ‘helped’ over the edge by attending one of his seminars or as a result of the inevitable media hype that will accompany his visit.

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