Monday, September 27, 2010

Choice is an Illusion

The Globe and Mail has done exactly what I predicted that Canadian media outlets would do - re: Ad campaign for assisted suicide banned from Canadian airwaves.

Philip Nitschke, the leader of Exit International, who acts similar to a suicide predator, developed a euthanasia promoting ad that was rejected for airing in Australia, because the ad promotes an illegal act.

Nitschke then asked the Television Bureau of Canada for permission to air the same ad in Canada, to promote his upcoming suicide workshops. It was also rejected for Canadian use, probably because it promotes an illegal act.

On September 20, Exit sent out a media release claiming that the ad, which has been rejected in Australia, was accepted in Canada. When I contacted the Television Bureau of Canada, they stated: 'the ad had not been accepted for Canadian use and that they did not know why Exit was claiming that it had been approved.'

I stated on my blog: Is Nitschke attempting to create controversy surrounding the rejection of this ad for Canadian use or does this mean the ad has simply not been approved yet?

Link to my blog comment: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/09/euthanasia-tv-ad-approved-in-canada-or.html

Now the Globe and Mail has printed an article, just as Nitschke had hoped and I had predicted, to cover the controversy of the rejected euthanasia ad and to promote his upcoming suicide workshops.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition supports Nitschke’s right to free speech, but Nitschke doesn’t debate the law, but rather he explains how to contravene the law.

I have viewed the ‘Exit Choices’ TV ad. It appears that the TV ad and the ‘Suicide Workshops’ contravene the Criminal Code of Canada

For those who think this issue is just about choice, did Robert Miller (19) and James Robertson (20) freely choose death or were they experiencing short term depression that made them easily influenced by Nitschke's ideas?
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7149562.ece

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