Australian police lay charges in assisted suicide deaths. Investigating 20 more.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Det. Mark Mooney, Queensland Police

Luca Ittimani reported for the Guardian on September 15 that Australian Police have charged Brett Daniel Taylor with two counts of aiding suicide and is being investigated over three Australian states in at least 20 deaths. 

Even though every Australian state has legalized assisted suicide, Taylor allegedly set-up a fake charity to obtain drugs that are used to euthanize animals. Ittimani reports:

Police have uncovered an alleged “end of life” business believed to be linked to as many as 20 deaths, with investigations across three states after a man died from a veterinary euthanasia drug.

Queensland police have charged a Gold Coast man alleged to have operated the business, Brett Daniel Taylor, with two counts of aiding suicide and several drug offences including trafficking dangerous drugs.

“The alleged conduct involves deliberately targeting vulnerable people and exploiting them in their most desperate moments,” said Det Insp Mark Mooney.

Taylor, 53, was not a vet, instead allegedly securing access to the drugs through a “front” charity set up to euthanise whales, which police claim has never carried out any lawful business.

Police stated that they are investigating back to 2021 possible cases.

The police need to investigate further back than 2021. There have been incidents of euthanasia drugs being stolen from Australian veterinarians. 

In May 2014 I reported that veterinary euthanasia drugs were stolen from the home of a semi-retired veterinarian in Victoria Australia. This was not the first incident of euthanasia drugs being stolen from a veterinarian.

Philip Nitschke has also promoted the use of veterinary euthanasia drugs for years. In March 2010 I published an article on how Nitschke encourages people to purchase veterinary euthanasia drugs online. The same article commented on a report from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine that researched 51 people who died from Nembutal in Australia. The report found that young people and depressed people were more likely to die by Nembutal than terminally ill people.

Police should also not assume that these alleged deaths were assisted suicide. They could also be euthanasia.

Ittimani reports on Taylor's alleged business model:

Police said they were investigating deaths dating back to 2021 and expected the business had allegedly played a role in 20 or more deaths, including some outside Queensland’s south-east.

The business’s services allegedly included helping people die in their own homes, providing them “suicide kits,” arranging wills and finding people after their death, Mooney said.

Police believe that Taylor was motivated by a profitable business model. Ittimani reports:

The business allegedly resold the drug for “significantly more” than its wholesale price, Mooney said.

“We will allege he hasn’t acted compassionately at all. This is a business transaction for him … just for pure money.”

Ittimani reported that the investigation began after an autopsy of a 43 year old man.

Police began investigating after the death of a 43-year-old man at his home on the Gold Coast in April, which a postmortem found had been caused by the veterinary drug.

“He had suffered from medical conditions for a long period of time but his medical conditions did not meet the voluntary assisted dying laws of Queensland,” Mooney said.

The case is further complicated by the alleged involvement of Taylor's family.

Taylor’s 80-year-old father and another woman, aged 81, are alleged to have helped the business’s operations and both face charges related to drug trafficking. The woman, who also faces a charge of aiding suicide, was unrelated to Taylor or his father.

Police are seeking help from anyone or has connections to End of Life Services.