By Hilary White
October 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Australian doctor, known around the world as “Dr. Death” for his advocacy of legal euthanasia, was refused a venue in Northern Ireland last week. Dr. Philip Nitschke, who is touring Britain with a suitcase of “Exit Bags” giving lectures on how to commit suicide, had an invitation to speak this Sunday at Queen’s University in Belfast rescinded for fear that his lecture would encourage suicide.
A university spokesman said, “The Northern Ireland Forum for Ethics in Medicine and Healthcare has withdrawn its invitation to Dr. Philip Nitschke to address Forum members in a forthcoming debate. The reported views of Dr. Nitschke were not deemed appropriate for this event.”
The owners of two venues in the seaside town of Bournemouth, the local council and Hermitage Hotel, also cancelled his appearances. The Bournemouth Daily Echo reported that Dr. Nitschke is still hoping to find a replacement venue in the town noted for its large population of elderly and retired people.
Although he denies encouraging people to kill themselves, Nitschke complained that the cancellations would deny elderly people access to the information they need on euthanasia. “Elderly people want access to good information. It empowers them, they have a better quality of life and paradoxically they live longer because they have the peace of mind of an exit strategy.”
Nitschke is one of the world’s foremost campaigners for legal assisted suicide and euthanasia, and travels the world giving lectures and workshops detailing how to commit suicide or assist another to do so.
Dr. Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee, said that the UK physician’s organisation does not support assisted suicide. “People should have the right to express strongly held views but there will be caveats to that. It depends on the vulnerability of people receiving the message.”
Nitschke’s talk in London went ahead, however, with a group hearing in “minute detail” how to commit suicide using prescription drugs. At his London appearance, he demonstrated the use of the “Exit Bag,” a plastic bag that fits over the head and suffocates the victim.
Even other euthanasia and assisted suicide advocates are critical of Nitschke. The UK group Dignity in Dying told BBC Radio 4 that his efforts are “illegal, clearly dangerous and crucially it doesn’t protect the vulnerable.”
Dignity in Dying chief executive Sarah Wootton said, “He’s got no idea whether they’re able to make informed choices, they may be depressed, he doesn’t know what they’ll do with the information.
“I think it’s very concerning. I don’t think he’s acting from bad motives – I need to emphasise that – but I do think that what he’s doing is irresponsible.”
Advocates for the disabled say that the sympathy generated by the euthanasia movement and their supporters in the media, is eroding the legal protections for vulnerable people.
Citing the case in the UK in which Eric Norton, a retired civil servant who killed his 84 year-old wife Betty with a plastic bag, bioethicist Wesley J. Smith wrote this week, “Courts continue to support euthanasia by not meaningfully punishing people who murder their loved ones who are sick or disabled.”
Norton received a nine-month suspended sentence after admitting he killed his wife, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The presiding judge, Brian Barker, told him, “The last thing that you had wanted to do was this and you had clearly dedicated yourself to your wife’s welfare.”
Smith wrote that “the murder not only killed Betty, it was a stab in the heart of the intrinsic importance of each human life. Moreover, the court’s leniency praised the act with faint damnation, sending a powerful message that Betty’s life – and those of people like her – don’t matter all that much.”