Philip Nitschke

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Philip Nitschke
Dr Philip Nitschke (2009)
Born	8 August 1947 South Australia, Australia
Profession	Physician and author
Specialism	Euthanasia Medicine
Research	Euthanasia and Painless Death
Known for	Influencing euthanasia debate worldwide
Years active	1988 to present
Education	University of Adelaide, Flinders University, Sydney University
Notable prizes	* Rainier Foundation Humanitarian Award (1996) * Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies (1998)

Dr. Philip Nitschke (pronounced /ˈnɪtʃki/) (born 8 August 1947) is an Australian medical doctor, humanist and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He successfully campaigned to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Federal government. Nitschke was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection.^[1] Nitschke has complained that he and his group are regularly subject to harassment by authorities.^[2][3][4]

Contents 1 Career 2 Views on dying with dignity 3 Books 3.1 Killing Me Softly 3.2 The Peaceful Pill Handbook 4 Exit bag and CoGen 5 Euthanasia device 6 Barbiturate testing kit 7 Pentobarbital long-storage pill 8 Awards and recognition 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Career

Born in 1947 in rural South Australia, Nitschke studied physics at the University of Adelaide, gaining a PhD from Flinders University in laser physics in 1972. Rejecting a career in the sciences, he instead travelled to the Northern Territory to take up work with the Aboriginal land rights activist, Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji at Wave Hill.

After the hand-back of land by then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Nitschke became a Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife ranger. However, a serious accident to his foot saw him return to university, graduating from Sydney University Medical School in 1988.

Since assisting four people in ending their lives, Nitschke has provided advice to others who have ended their lives, mostly notably Nancy Crick, aged 69. On May 22, 2002, Crick, with over 20 friends and family (but not Nitschke) present, took a lethal dose of barbiturates, went quickly to sleep, and died within twenty minutes. Nitschke had encouraged Nancy Crick to enter palliative care, which she did for a number of days before returning home again. She had undergone multiple surgeries to treat bowel cancer, and was left with multiple, dense, inoperable^[5] bowel adhesions that left her in constant pain and diarrhoea and tied to the toilet, but she was not terminally ill at the time of her death.^[6][7] Dr Nitschke said the scar tissue from previous cancer surgery had caused her suffering. "She didn't actually want to die when she had cancer. She wanted to die after she had cancer treatment," he said.^[7]

A 2004 documentary film, Mademoiselle and the Doctor^[8], focused on the quest of a retired Perth professor, Lisette Nigot, a healthy 79-year-old, to seek a successful method of voluntary euthanasia. She sought advice from Nitschke. Nigot took an overdose of medication that she had bought in the United States and died, just before her 80th birthday.^[9] In a note to Dr Nitschke, thanking him for his support, she described him as a crusader working for a worthwhile humane cause. "After 80 years of a good life, I have [had] enough of it," she wrote. "I want to stop it before it gets bad."

Nitschke made headlines in New Zealand when he announced plans to accompany eight New Zealanders to Mexico and help them purchase the potentially life-ending drug Nembutal.^[10] He also made headlines, even angering some fellow right-to-die advocates, when he presented his plan to launch a "death ship" that would have allowed him to circumvent local laws by euthanising people from around the world in international waters.^[11]

In the 2007 Australian federal election, Dr. Nitschke ran against the Australian politician Kevin Andrews in the Victorian seat of Menzies but was unsuccessful.^[12]

On 2 May 2009 Nitschke was detained for nine hours by British Immigration officials at Heathrow Airport after arriving for a visit to the UK to lecture on voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life choices. Dr Nitschke said it was a matter of free speech and that his detention said something about changes to British society which were "quite troubling".^[13] Nitschke was told that he and his wife were detained because the workshops may contravene British law.^[13] However, although assisting someone to commit suicide in the UK was illegal, the law did not apply to a person lecturing on the concept of euthanasia, and Nitschke was allowed to enter. Dame Joan Bakewell, the British Government's "Voice of Older People", said the current British law on assisted suicide was "a mess" and that Nitschke should have been made more welcome in the UK.^[14]

In 2009 Nitschke helped to promote Dignified Departure, a 13-hour, pay-television program on doctor-assisted suicide in Hong Kong and mainland China. The program aired in October in China on the Family Health channel, run by the official China National Radio.^[15]

[edit] Views on dying with dignity

On 29 April 2009, Nitschke said: "It seems we demand humans to live with indignity, pain and anguish whereas we are kinder to our pets when their suffering becomes too much. It simply is not logical or mature. Trouble is, we have had too many centuries of religious claptrap."^[16] He works mainly with older people from whom he gains inspiration, saying: "You get quite inspired and uplifted by the elderly folk who see this as quite a practical approach".^[17]

In July, 2009, Nitschke said he no longer believed voluntary euthanasia should only be available to the terminally ill, but that elderly people afraid of getting old and incapacitated should also have a choice.^[18]

[edit] Books

[edit] Killing Me Softly

Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia And The Road To The Peaceful Pill was published in 2005. This book explains the philosophy behind Nitschke's work at Exit International. Part biography, part political call to arms, Killing Me Softly documents the events around the world's first right-to-die law and provides analysis of the medico-legal model behind the voluntary euthanasia debate. It also discusses how a "peaceful pill" would revolutionise voluntary euthanasia in the same way the contraceptive pill transformed birth control.

[edit] The Peaceful Pill Handbook

In January 2007, he published the controversial book The Peaceful Pill Handbook, which was prohibited by Australian federal censorship regulator, the Office of Film and Literature Classification at the end of February 2007 ^[19]. The book was banned in New Zealand on 8 June 2007 by the New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification, not because it advocates for euthanasia, but because it gives instructions on drug manufacture and other acts deemed criminal.^[20] In May 2008, it was allowed for sale if sealed and an indication of the censorship classification was displayed.^[21]

On May 22, 2009 it was disclosed in the press, citing wikileaks.org, that the Australian Government had added the online Peaceful Pill Handbook (hosted at www.yudu.com [1] ) to the blacklist maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority used to filter internet access to citizens of Australia.^[22]

[edit] Exit bag and CoGen

Nitschke created devices to aid people who want euthanasia, including a product called the "exit bag" (a large plastic bag with a drawstring allowing it to be secured around the neck) and the "CoGen" (or "Co-Genie") device. Used together, the CoGen device generates the deadly gas carbon monoxide, which is inhaled with the "exit bag."^[23]

Nitschke later abandoned methods using carbon monoxide as complex, unreliable and toxic to bystanders.

[edit] Euthanasia device

In December 2008 Dr Nitschke released details of a euthanasia machine to the media. He called it "flawless" and "undetectable", saying the new process uses ordinary household products including a barbecue gas bottle — available from hardware stores — filled with nitrogen.^[24] Dr Nitschke developed a process in which patients lose consciousness immediately and die a few minutes later.

Nitschke said: "So it's extremely quick and there are no drugs. Importantly this doesn't fail – it's reliable, peaceful, available and with the additional benefit of undetectability."^[25]

[edit] Barbiturate testing kit

In 2009 Dr. Nitschke made a barbiturate testing kit available, initially launched in the UK,^[26] then Australia.^[27] Nitschke said the kit was made available by Exit International in response to growing demand for something to test the Nembutal obtained from Mexico, often delivered in the post without labels. "They want to be sure they have the right concentration," Nitschke said. The kits have chemicals that change colour when mixed with Nembutal. He was detained for an hour for questioning on arrival at Auckland Airport in New Zealand on a trip to hold public meetings and launch the kit.^[28]

[edit] Pentobarbital long-storage pill

In October, 2009, Nitschke announced his intention to inform people at his workshops where to obtain a long-storage form of sodium pentobarbital (Nembutal) that manufacturers say can be stored for up to fifty years without degrading.^[29] Liquid forms of pentobarbital degrade within a few years, while the solid form (a white, crystalline powder) does not. Nitschke intends to advise people on how to reconstitute the pill into liquid form for ingestion if and when it ever becomes appropriate. He said that he sees it as a way of keeping people accurately informed and allowing them to make viable choices. The provision of this information would be consistent with good medical care, in his view.^[29]

[edit] Awards and recognition

• In 1996, Nitschke received the Rainier Foundation Humanitarian Award
• In 1998, Nitschke was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.
• He has twice been a finalist for Australian of the Year (2005 & 2006).

[edit] See also

• Suicide bag
• Euthanasia device
• Terminal illness
• Right to die
• Euthanasia in Australia

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
• EXIT International
• ABC TV Interview with Nitschke by Andrew Denton
• Mademoiselle and the Doctor on Australian Screen