Euthanasia drug can cause excruciating death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An autopsy revealed that Wesley Purkey, who died by capital punishment on July 16, 2020, died an excruciating death. 

This article does not focus on capital punishment but rather the evidence that lethal injection death by pentobarbital (nembutal), a drug used for euthanasia and assisted suicide, is not a peaceful death.

According to an article by Candace Sutton and published by News.com.au:

An autopsy performed on Purkey, it was revealed today, revealed he suffered “severe bilateral acute pulmonary oedema” and “frothy pulmonary oedema in trachea and main stem bronchi”.

This means fluid quickly entered Purkey’s lungs and trachea, causing “a near-drowning” sensation which a medical expert described as “among the most excruciating feelings known to man”.

The information from the autopsy has become public by the legal team that is trying to prevent the capital punishment death of Keith Nelson. Sutton reported:

Dr Gail Van Norman, a medical expert retained by Nelson’s lawyers to interpret Purkey’s autopsy, said the flash flood-like filling of Purkey’s lungs could only occur when a person was still alive.

“It is a virtual medical certainty, that most, if not all, prisoners will experience excruciating suffering, including sensations of drowning and suffocation from (the drug) pentobarbital,” she said.

I am concerned about the many people who die excruciating assisted deaths with Pentobarbital. 

In the past few years I have published several articles explaining how death by euthanasia or assisted suicide is not necessarily quick and is often painful.

Nembutal is also promoted by euthanasia activist, Dr Philip Nitschke, who promotes the sale of lethal drugs via the internet. Nitschke is connected to suicide websites and he is known to be importing suicide kits into the United States. Many people are purchasing, through Nitschke, lethal drugs via the internet and then die an excruciating death. No matter how its justified, this is not a dignified death.

• Prolonged painful assisted suicide deaths (Link).
• The connection between lethal injection and capital punishment (Link).
• Many assisted suicide deaths are slow and painful (Link). 
• Is lethal injection inhumane? (Link).
• Euthanasia drug execution drug controversy (Link).

Nitschke roadshow - it's a business after all

This article was published on the Hope Australia website on June 5, 2016

Paul Russell

By Paul Russell 

The director of Hope Australia & Vice Chair of EPC - International

It seems that it isn't enough to provide people with information on how to get an illegal euthanasia drug sent to people from overseas; now Philip Nitschke and Exit want to provide tests so that people will know that what came in the mail will 'do the job'.

News reports about Exit's meeting in Canberra, Australia seem to suggest that this is something new. I suppose there has to be a hook here; a reason for the article. The reality is that Nitschke has been doing this now for sometime. If there's a twist it is that the article talks about learning to test the drug at home whereas previously Nitschke had testing apparatus in the back of a small van.

That van was also a delivery vehicle for 'Max Dog' nitrogen cylinders - another of Nitschke's semi-do-it-yourself suicide methods. He's also been working in Switzerland on a new mechanised death-delivery system he calls 'The Destiny Machine' which was also 'demonstrated' at his comedy shows in Edinburgh and most recently in Melbourne.

Suicide is clearly big business! I have always thought it odd that the media paints Nitschke as a 'euthanasia activist' when, in reality, his business model is built on selling suicide or 'self-deliverance' while legal euthanasia would likely curtail his sales figures somewhat by getting doctors and pharmacy involved. But somehow, when there's a sick or disabled person involved, or even someone who expects to become sick or disabled, it is suddenly not about suicide.

Craig Wallace

Craig Wallace, convenor of Lives Worth Living re-established the suicide connection in the media yesterday:

"We shouldn't be testing Nembutal, we should be testing suicide prevention for people with a disability." 

"We have many concerns about euthanasia, and that people with disability might be levered into taking their own lives because of a lack of disability support," he said pointing to the reality that our wolrd is far from perfect, intentions and motivations are not always honourable and we are a long way from valuing every person equally.

The report on this latest 'testing' initiative says that the program is modelled on drug testing at rave parties, music festivals and the like. Hardly an appropriate comparison given that the motivation for testing of hallucinogenic drugs is to save lives while Nitshcke's is to make sure you're dead.

Yet the media cannot help but swallow the line as he moves around Australia - this time with his European Exit counterpart, Tom Curran. Curran's wife, Marie Fleming passed away in Ireland in December 2013 from complications arising from Multiple Sclerosis. She campaigned long and hard - but ultimately unsuccessfully - through the Irish Courts to change the laws on assisting is suicide to protect Curran from prosecution should she chose to go to Dignitas in Switzerland to end her life.

Curran has since become one of the central figures in recent times pushing for euthanasia in Ireland. Like Nitschke, he has something of a conflict of interest inasmuch as he supports (and Curran has had a hand in designing) a limited regime (a bill) for the sake of the parliament but markets through Exit an 'anyone, anytime' type of philosophy that no legislature would ever pass into law.

This re-inforces the fact that, for many in the pro-euthanasia lobby, that very first piece of legislation that they want to see passed into law is, in reality, a beach head. Crafting the bill is more about finding a way to quiet the known criticisms so as to gain the all-important 'fifty percent plus one' majority. This becomes strikingly obvious in jurisdictions where repeated unsuccessful attempts begin to stack up like newspapers on garbage day. You can see the progression in thought from one bill to another with more backflips that Nadia Comaneci and empty assurances about 'robust safeguards' falling flat under scrutiny.

Curran recently spoke at a meeting in Tasmania where another euthanasia bill is expected to be introduced shortly. In February this year former Labor Leader and supporter of euthanasia, Lara Giddings MP, said that this new push “That of course (it) won’t satisfy every person who supports voluntary euthanasia." So, one could hardly expect that the pro-euthanasia lobby groups will, thereafter, wind up their operations, pat each other on the back and move on. No, they will bide their time and look for later opportunities to expand that law using the same 'hard cases' strategy as before.

Ultimately, as we have seen in Belgium and, to a similar extent in The Netherlands, either by changes to the law or by changes to interpretation of the existing law, there will be an inexorable creep towards the Nitschke/Exit philosophical position that is based squarely upon personal autonomy and nothing else.

If anything in this article causes you to think about suicide contact a crisis line near you.

'Cowboy' suicide doctor in Australia may be riding into his own sunset

This article was written by Paul Russell, the director of Hope Australia and published by Hope Australia on March 9, 2016.

Paul Russell

By Paul Russell.

My colleague, Alex Schadenberg called Dr Rodney Syme ‘a cowboy’ last year in relation to Syme admitting to have supported the suicide deaths of approximately 100 people over a number of years.

Syme seems either to have been beguiled by the cult of celebrity or maybe he truly wants to become a martyr for a cause. Either way, he seems comfortable appearing in the press from time to time making outrageous and unsustainable claims about having helped yet another ill person to take their own life. I say ‘outrageous and unsustainable’ because while seeming to be goading the authorities to arrest him and to make a test case out of his actions, he never provides enough (if any) evidence to them or to the public to back up his claims.

And while he told Andrew Denton recently that he gets ‘annoyed’ when the word ‘suicide’ is used, it is against the statute that prohibits assisting in ‘suicide’ that his actions might be measured if he ever backs up his rhetoric with proofs. When a person kills themself, it is a suicide; the circumstances don’t change that reality.

But he provides no proof. Even in the death of Ray Godbold, covered extensively by the Fairfax Press in May 2015, where the journalist reports on a moment in time (with pictures) that perhaps should have had the authorities acting. From the story; Syme talking to Godbold:

"That's medication for you – some Nembutal," he says. "You need to take that by mouth, and you will have total control of that. It's not my intention that you take it. I hope you don't need to take it. But if you run into a brick wall, then that is what I sometimes call the key to the fire escape." 

"If you take it," says Dr Syme, "you will go to sleep relatively quickly and peacefully, and you will not wake up."

I reported the matter to the medical board (as Syme's recalls in a recent article) citing not only the conversation and the images but also the fact that a medical doctor providing a controlled substance was surely ‘conduct unbecoming’. My notification was followed up but then ultimately dismissed. What proof is there that the item was Nembutal? None. So, even here there’s ‘nothing to see’. Syme is not such a brave hero as the press seem to want to make him out to be.

But the medical board have finally taken action; this time on a complaint from the regular doctor of a dying man as reported in various media. It seems that Syme is, according to the medical board, now a ‘serious risk to the public’.

The Age newspaper reports that the doctor of Mr Bernard Erica, a man with terminal cancer, reported Syme to the medical board after the ABC TV crew for the program, Australian Story, contacted the doctor asking for an interview. Syme has a relationship with this man and reports suggest that he was intending to provide Nembutal to him.

According to The Age, Syme has now been warned by the medical board not to do anything with the "primary purpose of ending a person's life". It is unclear from The Age report whether or not this is the final judgement or an interim measure. Regardless, Syme says that he is appealing the decision. He also told the reporter that he is working with 35 other patients at the moment. TheABC online news service says that ‘the Medical Board (has) also decided to conduct a wider investigation into Dr Syme's professional conduct’. Time will tell.

Suicide promotion has led to more youth suicide in Australia.

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Philip Nitschke has been promoting assisted suicide for many years. Recent statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that Nitschke's is promotion of suicide techniques has led to many younger people dying by suicide.

The Sydney Morning Herald featured the story of Lucas Taylor (26) who died in 2012, after receiving suicide assistance from Nitschke and his group.

Judith Taylor, the mother of Lucas, told the Morning Herald:

Twenty-six-year-old Lucas Taylor took his own life by taking Nembutal more than three years ago, but he still gets Exit International's email newsletter. 

Judith Taylor, the mother of Lucas.

After his death in 2012 his mother Judith went through his emails looking for answers and found he had been a paid up member of the organisation. 

the deaths among younger people were an "unintended consequence" of the voluntary euthanasia movement putting out information online on suicide methods.

Nembutal is a veterinary euthanasia drug. 

According the Sydney Morning Herald:

New data from the national coronial information system shows 120 people died by taking Nembutal .. between July 2000 and December 2012. 

The deaths included one person under the age of 20, 11 people in their 20s and 14 people in their 30s. 

Voluntary euthanasia campaigners say the actual number of Nembutal deaths is even higher, as many deaths are not reported to the coroner and people who use the drug to take their lives take steps to make it look like the death is of natural causes.

If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts contact Your Life Counts.

Nitschke is also fighting to keep his Australian medical license. There have been 12 complaints to the Australian Medical Board concerning Nitschke and his group Exit International. 

Judith Taylor submitted one of those complaints. Taylor told the Medical Board that:

her son had been coached in how to take his own life by forum members who exchanged information on the particulars. 

There was no one present to urge restraint or at least some second thoughts about the permanency of suicide, other possible options and the fact that he would be wrapping up his pain and passing it on to his family for the rest of their lives. 

It is the worst of the worst. To find your son has died is bad enough but to find out it was by his own hand and then to find out there is an international business that promotes it, coerces it and provides all the info was worse.

Nitschke's has been promoting veterinary euthanasia drugs for many years. In June 2010 I commented on a study from Victoria Australia that found:

... of the 51 people who were known to have died from Nembutal, 6 people were in their 20's, 8 people were in their 30's, 5 people were in their 40's, 14 people were in their 50's, 3 people in their 60's, 10 in their 70's, and 5 people were over the age of 80. 

... of the 38 known deaths that were investigated by a coroner, only 11 had a significant physical illness or chronic pain with the remaining 27 cases showing no signs of physical problems. 

The report suggested that the 27 otherwise healthy people who died from Nembutal use were most likely depressed or mentally ill.

Paul Russell, the director of HOPE, an organisation devoted to preventing euthanasia and assisted suicide, said the data was concerning and something suicide prevention organisations should be heeding.

We need to find more effective ways of helping people [who] are feeling desperate from going to these clandestine organisations.

The fact is that Nitschke recklessly abandons vulnerable people who deserve social, and psychological support, excellent care, effective pain management and a caring community.

• Nitschke continues to promote lethal veterinary drugs.
• Philip Nitschke is being investigated in 20 deaths.
• Nitschke: An undetectable death or murder?

Australia: Another story, another push for euthanasia.

This article was originally published on the HOPE Australia website.

Paul Russell

By Paul Russell, the Director of HOPE Australia

Yesterday the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers ramped up its editorial support for euthanasia laws by publishing yet another story about a person with a difficult diagnosis who wants the ‘option’ of killing himself. Predictably they also editorialised on the same issue at a time when every other newspaper is covering such pressing matters as the national budget, dealing with the threat of terrorism, social disadvantage etc.

This new story feature’s Victoria’s own ‘doctor death’, Dr Rodney Syme, vice president of the Victorian pro-euthanasia lobby, and records in words, images and video Syme handing the person a bottle identified as containing Nembutal. Syme has admitted providing Nembutal to others. In 2014, he admitted, in the same newspaper, that he gave Steve Guest Nembutal in the weeks before Guest killed himself in 2005. Syme was effectively goading the Victorian Police into action; the article reporting his thoughts as follows:

“Dr Syme, 78, said after watching state Parliaments reject 16 euthanasia bills over the past 20 years he was ready to "out" himself and be charged over Mr Guest's death because a court case could set a useful legal precedent for doctors who are too scared to help terminally ill people end their own lives.”

According to reports, the police did investigate; but the issue went quiet and no charges have apparently been brought in that regard. This is hardly surprising at one level. Nine years after the event what proof would there be to confirm what, after all, was essentially media grandstanding by Syme.

This current situation is different. The Age article quotes from Syme as he hands over the Nembutal and the event is also recorded in still images and video:

“He hands the bottle over. "That's medication for you – some Nembutal," he says. "You need to take that by mouth, and you will have total control of that. It's not my intention that you take it. I hope you don't need to take it. But if you run into a brick wall, then that is what I sometimes call the key to the fire escape."

And

"If you take it," says Dr Syme, "you will go to sleep relatively quickly and peacefully, and you will not wake up."

Delivery, prescription, advice; it’s all there – and in front of witnesses.

Again, it seems that Syme is keen to push the envelope; to goad the police into action. Time will tell whether or not he gets his wish.

So what’s the take-away message from all of this? Syme and The Age clearly want us to think of Syme as some sort of modern day martyr for a cause. The gentleman concerned and his medical issues are simply a vehicle for that; a tug at the emotions. We’ve seen it all before.

Euthanasia clinic raided by police. Another Exit death in Adelaide. HOPE renews call for National Inquiry.

By Paul Russell, the director of HOPE Australia.

This article was published on the HOPE Australia website on August 1.

Paul Russell

An hour after Philip Nitschke met today with South Australian Police over the recent nembutal death, in Adelaide, of former Voluntary Euthanasia Party Senate candidate, Max Bromson, his clinic in the Adelaide suburb of Gilberton was raided by police.

Max Bromson took his own life by consuming the drug in a hotel room in Adelaide earlier this week in the company of members of his family. Bromson organised to video his own death ostensibly to show that he acted on his own volition.

However, on advice of the death by Bromson's sister, Adelaide detectives swooped on the scene, confiscating mobile phones, devices and laptops as part of their inquiry.

Nitschke admitted in the Press that he provided Max Bromson with advice concerning nembutal and also tested the purity of the substance that Bromson is alleged to have imported from China. He also said that he expected to be questioned by police in regards to the death.

South Australia's laws on assisting in suicide have, to the writer's knowledge, never been tested to the extent of defining what might be considered as assistance.

The In Daily report says that police again confiscated electronic and mobile devices from the Gilberton address.

Yesterday the ABC World Today Program highlighted HOPE's call for a national inquiry into the operation of Exit International and Philip Nitschke. This writer was quoted in the report:

Paul Russell from anti-euthanasia group HOPE says assisted suicide needs to be addressed on a broader scale.

He's calling on a Federal Government response to Philip Nitschke's organisation.

PAUL RUSSELL: Exit is an international organisation and Philip's reach is into many Western countries. 

I think we really need to sit down as a country and have a decent look at this organisation, some kind of national inquiry, to really uncover what's happening here, even if only for the sake of natural justice for those that have lost loved ones. 

ELEANOR HALL: And that's Paul Russell from anti-euthanasia group HOPE, ending Caroline Winter's report.

HELP US in our call for a NATIONAL INQUIRY. Click Here to sign our petition.

Australia's Dr Death, Philip Nitschke, to lose medical license.

By Alex Schadenberg

International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr Death, stated in an email update today that the Australian Medical Board plans to de-register his medical license on Thursday, July 24 at midnight.

The decision by the Australian Medical Board to de-register Nitschke is related to several complaints that were filed against him especially the recent complaints that were filed in relation to the suicide death of Nigel Brayley (45) who was healthy, but depressed after being investigated in the murder of his wife.

The issue related to the death of Nigel Brayley began with an article published by ABC news Australia titled: Families and friends concerned about who's being advised by euthanasia advocate Dr Nitschke which uncovered the controversy related to Nitschke advising Brayley on how to commit suicide.

Paul Russell

The article was followed by a media release from Paul Russell, the director of Hope Australia demanding a national inquiry into the suicide deaths associated to Nitschke's work promoting suicide.

Russell is also the Vice Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International

I published an article comparing the current news stories related to Brayley's suicide death to previous news stories related to other Nitschke related deaths.

Paul Russell followed up with an article, the next day, reporting the response of suicide prevention groups, BeyondBlue and the Black Dog Institute to the comments by Nitschke related to the death of Brayley.

The Chairman of BeyondBlue and former Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett referred to Nitschke's actions as a gross breach of the Hippocratic Oath while stating:

"As a long-time supporter of euthanasia for the terminally ill, for those for whom the dignity of life has been lost, and under special conditions, I believe Dr Nitschke's latest act has crossed the line of decency and professional conduct. ... 

"I trust the appropriate Medical Board or Boards, and Governments will move quickly to investigate Dr Nitschke's latest act. He has done society a great disservice, and in my opinion should no longer be registered to practise as a medical professional."

Jeff Kennett

A few days later, Kennett and BeyondBlue, issued an official complaint to the Australian Medical Board. In the official complaint Kennett stated:

Dr Nitschke has coined the phrase “rational suicide” to attempt to justify his recent action. There is no such thing as a “rational suicide”. 

What he has supported is death. The taking or ending of a life. Some might even say murder of an able-bodied Australian who was in need of professional help. 

Dr Nitschke has also inferred that anyone of sound mind should have the right to end their lives, regardless of age or condition. How totally reprehensible! Unacceptable.

It goes against everything we at beyondblue and like organisations and governments are working to deliver, a much lower suicide rate.On Thursday, July 17, Paul Russell wrote another article announcing that Philip Nitschke had 48 hours to defend being struck off the medical board.

Australian Suicide Prevention Groups condemn actions of Nitschke.

By Paul Russell, the founder of HOPE Australia - link to the original article.

So-called 'rational suicide' is an oxymoron.

Two of Australia's most well known and effective suicide prevention organisations today condemned the actions of Dr Philip Nitschke in supporting the suicide death of a healthy 45 year old Australian man a few months ago.

Nitschke had claimed that, in his opinion, the decision by Nigel Brayley to kill himself was rational and, when challenged about this by an ABC reporter as to why he didn't counsel the man to seek help, simply responded. "We don't do that."

Chairman of Beyond Blue and former Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, said that Nitschke's actions were 'reprehensible' adding that his actions were, 'a gross breach of his Hippocratic Oath as a doctor, and offensive to all standards of common decency.'

Yesterday, HOPE director, Paul Russell, called for a national inquiry into Dr Nitschke and the operation of Exit International.

Kennett, a supporter of euthanasia also called for an investigation. 

"As a long-time supporter of euthanasia for the terminally ill, for those for whom the dignity of life has been lost, and under special conditions, I believe Dr Nitschke's latest act has crossed the line of decency and professional conduct.

"He has done his more general cause for euthanasia a great deal of harm.

"I trust the appropriate Medical Board or Boards, and Governments will move quickly to investigate Dr Nitschke's latest act. He has done society a great disservice, and in my opinion should no longer be registered to practise as a medical professional."

Suicide, all suicide, is a tragedy. People contemplate suicide because they see it as the only answer to their problems. This is never the case; there are always alternatives. At HOPE we include assisted suicide and it's close relation, euthanasia here also because we don't see that there's a real difference of fact. People who seek assisted suicide or euthanasia see their death as the only option. Again this is never the case. That's why, while we support to work of beyond Blue and it's chairman, Mr Kennett, we feel that his support for euthanasia is a mixed message.

Nitschke aids suicide of healthy depressed man.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Alex Schadenberg

ABC News in Australia reported that euthanasia promoter, Philip Nitschke, is being questioned for his involvement in the suicide death of Nigel Brayley (45) who died in May 2014 after ingesting a lethal dose of a veterinary drug that was illegally imported into Australia.

According to ABC News, Nitschke, who promotes euthanasia and sells suicide manuals and devices via the internet, admitted to aiding Brayley's suicide:

In emails obtained by the ABC, Mr Brayley admitted to Dr Nitschke he was not "supporting a terminal medical illness", but said he was "suffering". 

Now Dr Nitschke is being accused of moving into uncharted territory by agreeing to assist Mr Brayley despite knowing he was not terminally ill. 

AUDIO: Listen to PM's report (PM) 

"If a 45-year-old comes to a rational decision to end his life, researches it in the way he does, meticulously, and decides that ... now is the time I wish to end my life, they should be supported. And we did support him in that," he said.

The circumstances related to Brayley's suicide death are also concerning. The article stated:

friends Kerry and Trish O'Neil could see Mr Brayley's life spiraling out of control after the death of his wife Lina, who died at a local quarry in 2011 in what was at first thought to be an accident. 

The case was upgraded to a murder inquiry, and while police never named Mr Brayley as a suspect, he told the O'Neils the investigation and the loss of his job had made him depressed. 

In the weeks before his death he told Dr Nitschke that he planned to take his own life. 

"We had a lot of communication with Nigel, he'd been in touch with us for a while, he'd joined the organisation," Dr Nitschke said.

Oregon Runs Out of Death Drugs

By Wesley Smith - May 22, 2014 (originally published on Wesley Smith's blog) 

Wesley Smith

It appears that Oregon has run dry on death drugs. You see death penalty opponents have made the supply of a prime death-causing drug used in assisted suicide scarce. Of course, the media misses the irony. From the Willamette Week story:

Death-with-dignity [assisted suicide] patients are victims of a global political battle over capital punishment in the U.S., according to the federal Food and Drug Administration, which regulates pharmaceuticals, and the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees application of the state’s Death With Dignity Act. 

Access to pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, has all but ended in the United States because U.S. prison officials use it in lethal injections for executions.

Like I always say, “cruel and unusual death with dignity.

Now, it seems to me that if the drugs are wrong to use in lawful executions, they are also wrong to prescribe to people who want to kill themselves. Death-causing is death-causing, and that ain’t medicine.

But not to worry, the Hemlock Society C & C wants to go in the death-drug distribution trade:

Veterinary euthanasia drugs stolen.

An article in the Geelong Advertiser in Australia is reporting that veterinary euthanasia drugs were stolen from the home of a semi-retired veterinarian in Victoria Australia. The article reported:

Police said veterinarian drugs had been taken and would be fatal if digested. 

Owner Graham, whose surname has been withheld, said he returned home with his wife to find the front door wide open. 

The discovery left him feeling sick, he said. 

“They left the iPads and things behind but took a bit of jewellery and odd bits. The most concerning was euthanasia drugs which we use for putting down animals.”

It is evident from the report, that the purpose for the break and enter was to steel euthanasia drugs. This is one of many reports concerning stolen euthanasia drugs.

Veterinarians will need to increase the security for their euthanasia drugs, since several euthanasia movement leaders have been encouraging the use of veterinary euthanasia drugs.

Links to similar articles:
● Australian doctor publicly admits to assisting suicide.

● Nitschke is importing suicide kits into the United States.

● Dr Death continues to sell suicide over the internet.

● Dr Death continues to promote veterinary drugs for suicide.
● Hoarding death drugs.

● Legalizing euthanasia: There will be casualties.

Nitschke continues to sell suicide over the internet.

Philip Nitschke, is once again promoting the illegal import of veterinary euthanasia drugs in Australia.

Yahoo 7 news in Australia interviewed Nitschke in a manner that almost invited the illegal import of lethal drugs. The interview did state:

"Be careful, because it's illegal." 

The penalty for importing or possessing Nembutal is a prison sentence or a fine of up to $825,000. 

Dr Nitschke says hundreds of Australians have illegally brought the drug into the country over the past couple of years. 

The Australian Federal Police have told the ABC's Lateline program that they have seized almost 15 kilograms of the drug since 2007.

The illegal promotion of veterinary euthanasia drugs by Nitschke is dangerous and reckless. 

A 2010 report from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine 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 in Australia.

The report stated that of the 51 people who were known to have died from Nembutal, 6 people were in their 20's, 8 people were in their 30's, 5 people were in their 40's, 14 people were in their 50's, 3 people in their 60's, 10 in their 70's, and 5 people were over the age of 80.

Further to that, the report found that of the 38 known deaths that were investigated by a coroner, only 11 had a significant physical illness or chronic pain with the remaining 27 cases showing no signs of physical problems.

The report suggested that the 27 otherwise healthy people who died from Nembutal use were most likely depressed or mentally ill.

In February 2010 Nitschke stated to the Australian Age newspaper, in response to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine report that:

''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,'' 

More recently Nitschke has been importing death cannisters under the corporate name - Max Dog Brewing.

The media continues to be irresponsible in their promotion of Nitschke, a man who is not concerned that his promotion of suicide has led to many depressed and mentally ill people have been encouraged to suicide rather than encouraged to receive good, caring medical help.

I am convinced that Nitschke once again went the media to promote his suicide business in response to the fact that he and his Euthanasia Party were electorally trounced in the recent Australian Senate election.

Readers of this who are thinking about suicide contact. Suicide hotline.

Links to similar articles:
Nitschke is importing death cannisters.
Nitschke continues to promote Nembutal over the internet.
Legalizing euthanasia - There will be casualties.

Drug company stops distributing euthanasia drug for executions.

Time reported in a recent article that the State of Texas is running out of the drug that they use for executions because the company that produces the drug are upset that the drug was being used for ending human lives. The article in Time stated:

Texas is facing a depleted supply after a Danish drug maker announced two years ago that it would no longer supply the drug for use in executions, thanks in part to pressure from multiple groups in Europe that have unexpectedly thrown up obstacles to U.S. states carrying out the death penalty. 

In early 2011, Danish drug maker Lundbeck, which manufactures pentobarbital (sold under the name Nembutal), discovered that U.S. states were using its product in lethal injections. The complex international distribution networks of pharmaceuticals often make it difficult for manufacturers to know exactly where their products end up. But once pentobarbital’s use in U.S. executions came to light, many in Denmark were upset that medicine made in a country that abolished the death penalty decades ago was being used for ending lives rather than saving them.

The article continued:

By spring 2011, Danish newspapers were regularly publishing stories about pentobarbital’s use as several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and U.K.-based Reprieve, issued press releases to highlight each new execution that used drugs made by Lundbeck. In June 2011, Dr. David Nicholl – a neurologist and human rights activist – wrote an open letter to Ulf Wiinberg, the chief executive of Lundbeck. The letter, signed by more than 60 other doctors and academics urging the company to halt its U.S. supply, was published in the medical journal The Lancet. 

“As clinicians and prescribers of Lundbeck’s products, we are appalled at the inaction of Lundbeck to prevent the supply of their drug, Nembutal (pentobarbital), for use in executions in the USA,” the letter stated. “Pentobarbital is rapidly proving to be the drug of choice for US executions. Lundbeck should restrict distribution of pentobarbital to legitimate users … but not to executioners.” 

Three weeks later, Lundbeck said it would no longer allow the drug to be used in U.S. executions and began reviewing all orders of the drug and denying U.S. prisons looking to order it. Now, states like Texas, Georgia and Missouri are grappling with how to continue their planned executions. ...

To halt its supply, Lundbeck worked with human rights group Reprieve to simplify its distribution model, essentially taking out middlemen so the company could more easily identify who ended up with its products. Maya Foa, deputy director of Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team, says that her organization’s goal isn’t to end capital punishment in the U.S. but merely to get pharmaceutical companies to follow the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. 

“Their reason to be is to make medicine to save lives,” Foa says.

Pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, is used for euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) agrees that companies should follow the Hippocratic oath and do no harm.

Maya Foa, who is deputy director of Reprieve's Death Penalty Team, is also responsible for Reprieve’s Stop the Lethal Injection Project (SLIP).

We have asked Maya to help EPC extend the Stop the Lethal Injection Project (SLIP) to end the use of Pentobarbital for euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Links to similar articles: 
* Nitschke continues to promote Nembutal sales over the internet.
* Nitschke does not have permission to import Nembutal into Australia.

Why was Nitschke let into the UK?

This article was written by Dr Peter Saunders and published on his blog on June 23.

By Dr Peter Saunders - Campaign Director for the Care Not Killing Alliance UK

Dr Peter Saunders

Dr Philip Nitschke

Last week I wrote to the Home Secretary Theresa May advising her about the visit of Australian assisted suicide enthusiast Philip Nitschke 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 said that 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.

Previous articles about Philip Nitschke:

- Philip Nitschke appears to be trolling the internet for peaceful pill customers and death clients.
- Philip Nitschke continues to promote veterinary drugs for suicide.

- Were Robert Miller and James Robertson influenced by Philip Nitschke? 

- Legalizing euthanasia, there will be casualties.