Special Report: A Scourge of Death Doctors.

This article was published by The American Spectator on January 30, 2019

Wesley J Smith

By Wesley J Smith

Jack Kevorkian has his unworthy successors.

Assisted suicide sure brings out the medical bottom feeders. Jack Kevorkian was the most notorious of these — let’s call them “death doctors” — assisting the suicides of some 130 people during the 1990s. Not only did he help sick, disabled, and (at least 5) healthy despairing people kill themselves, but he did it in a particularly crass fashion, such as having them inhale carbon monoxide from a canister in the back of his old, rusty van.

As a pathologist, Kevorkian did not treat living patients after medical school and was thus hardly qualified to medically counsel the many sad people who sought him out. (One wag, whose name escapes me now, quipped that Kevorkian was the most successful serial killer in history because victims came to him.) Nor was he primarily concerned with alleviating suffering. Rather, as described in his book Prescription Medicide, Kevorkian’s “ultimate aim” was a license to engage in human vivisection, i.e., “the performance of invaluable experiments or other beneficial medical acts under conditions that this first unpleasant step [assisted suicide] can help establish.”

Jack Kevorkian

The point of his ghoulish desire was pure quackery:

[K]nowledge about the essence of human death will of necessity require insight into the nature of the unique awareness of consciousness that characterizes cognitive human life. That is possible only throughobitiatric research [Kevorkian’s name for experimenting on people being euthanized] on living human bodies, and most likely centering on the nervous system… on anesthetized subjects [to] pinpoint the exact onset of extinction of an unknown cognitive mechanism that energizes life.

Good grief.

Despite this — and more — Kevorkian became a media darling, supported by 60 Minutes— including the time he aired a video of himself murdering ALS patient Thomas Youk by lethal injection. (I can still see the late Mike Wallace asking repeatedly, “Is he dead yet? Is he dead yet?”) Kevorkian was also a special celebrity guest at Time magazine’s gala 50th anniversary party, where Tom Cruise ran up to shake his hand. At the end of his life, he received $50,000 per speech — not bad for a failed physician who couldn’t land a position at the end of his medical career.

The Australian doctor Philip Nitschke is another suicide-pushing ideologue par excellence. Not only has he held “how to kill yourself” training seminars around the world, but he was paid by the Hemlock Society (now, Compassion and Choices) to concoct a suicide brew made of common household products called the “Peaceful Pill.” In an interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review, Nitschke said that Peaceful Pills should be made available “in supermarkets” to “anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, the troubled teen.”

Philip Nitschke

Until Australia legally prohibited it, Nitschke sold plastic “Exit Bags,” to be put over one’s head while committing suicide. He was involved in several suicides of people who were far from seriously ill. One was cancer patient Nancy Crick, who made breathless news down-under when Nitschke announced at a news conference that he would counsel her on how to commit suicide. He claimed that Crick had terminal cancer. But when her autopsy showed no recurrence of the disease, Nitschke casually admitted he had known she wasn’t terminally ill all along.

Nitschke has also been implicated in the suicides of people who acted upon his advice to purchase an animal euthanasia drug with which to kill themselves. In his most recent death-promoting PR stunt — for which Newsweek praised him as the “Elon Musk of assisted suicide” — Nitschke conjured a futuristic-looking suicide machine that kills with liquid nitrogen and, he brags, can double as a sleek and luxurious casket.

The California physician Lonny Shavelson is the latest entrant in this infamous death doctor medical society. When California legalized assisted suicide, the formerly part-time emergency room doctor and photo journalist announced he was opening a suicide practice where he would confirm a terminal diagnosis and prescribe poison pills for just $2000.

Think about this: As an ER doc, Shavelson is not a trained specialist in treating cancer, ALS, kidney disease, or any of the many other conditions that can lead to a terminal diagnosis. Indeed, he might be incompetent in creating actual treatment plans for such patients or dealing with the myriad situations — including depression — that can arise in such serious circumstances. But as we saw with Kevorkian, death doctoring isn’t about providing proper care. Rather, its sole purpose is getting people dead.

One would hope that a doctor who deals in suicide pills would at the very least exhibit sterling character. Shavelson also fails that basic test. In A Chosen Death, he wrote about watching the leader of a local assisted suicide advocacy group murder a disabled man named Gene, a lonely alcoholic who was partially disabled by a stroke.

To fully understand Shavelson’s utter cravenness, permit me to describe the scene at some length. As Shavelson describes it, “Sarah” had previously assisted a close friend to commit suicide, telling the author that she found the experience tremendously satisfying and powerful, “the most intimate experience you can share with a person.… More than sex. More than birth… more than anything,” including being present for “the deliveries of my four grandchildren.”

A committed death fundamentalist, Sarah wants again to enjoy the intense rush she experienced facilitating her friend’s death, and so she jumps at the chance to help kill Gene when he contacts her for suicide assistance — which was a felony, by the way. He tells Shavelson, who asks to observe Gene’s death for recounting in his book.

Sarah comes to Gene’s home and prepares a poisonous brew, saying, “O.K., toots, here you go,” as if she were handing him a beer.Gene drinks the liquid and begins to fall asleep, with Sarah holding his head on her lap. She puts a plastic bag over his head. But then, suddenly, faced with the prospect of immediate death, Gene changes his mind. He screams, “I’m cold!” and tries to rip the bag off his face. But Sarah won’t allow it. From Shavelson’s account:

His good band flew up to tear off the plastic bag. Sarah’ s hand caught Gene’s wrist and held it. His body thrust upwards. She pulled his arm away and lay across Gene’s shoulders. Sarah rocked back and forth, pinning him down, her fingers twisting the bag to seal it tight at his neck as she repeated, “the light, Gene, go toward the light.” Gene’s body pushed against Sarah’s. Then be stopped moving.

There is a word that describes what happened to Gene: murder. The right, proper, ethical, and human thing for Shavelson to have done would have been to knock Sarah off the helpless man and then quickly dial 911 for an ambulance and the police. But Shavelson did nothing:

“Stop, Sarah” raced through my mind. For whose sake, I thought — Gene’s, so intent on killing himself? The weight of unanswered questions kept me glued to my corner. Was this a suicide, Gene’s right finally to succeed and die? Or was this a needless death encouraged by Sarah’s desire to act? Had Gene’s decision to have me there, to tell me his story, given me the right to stop what was happening — or, equally powerful, the responsibility not to interfere? Or was I obliged by my very presence as a fellow human being, to jump up and stop the craziness? Was it craziness?

Let me help: It was a cowardly abdication of responsibility by Shavelson and the abandonment of a weak and vulnerable man who fought the best he could to live. Adding to the intensity of the wrong, from what a reader can determine in his book, Shavelson never reported the killing to the police.

These days, Shavelson devotes himself to death doctoring, although I have little doubt that he will one day write a book about his suicide adventures. It is a cold business. From a recent story on assisted suicide in the Atlantic:

The patient takes the first drug, which Shavelson separates out from the rest of the mixture, and then Shavelson sits down at the bedside and reads aloud questions from the state’s required report. After about 30 minutes, he asks: “Are you ready to take the medications?” He mixes the drug cocktail and the patient drinks it.

“Usually, they go silent after taking the medication,” he says. “They’ve said what they’re going to say by that time.” For a few minutes, patients usually continue to sit silently, their eyes open. “And then, very, very slowly, they’ll close their eyes.”

Shavelson asks intermittently, “Are you still there?” At first, patients usually say yes, or nod. Within five or 10 minutes, they stop responding to the question. Then Shavelson will gently touch their eyelids. “When people aren’t deeply unconscious, they’ll sort of have a twitching response,” he explains. Within 10 or 15 minutes, the twitching response disappears, and patients enter a deep coma.

Using a heart monitor, Shavelson tells caregivers as a patient’s pulse slows and oxygen levels drop. “We wait a little while, and then I say, ‘Ah, the patient’s now dead.’”

Giving people poison to drink isn’t practicing medicine.

Death doctors don’t need to be good physicians. They don’t need to be specially trained in treating a patient’s underlying medical condition. They don’t need experience in spotting depression, signs of coercion, or mental illness. They don’t even have to be caring human beings. They just need a license to prescribe lethal drugs and/or be otherwise willing to help suicidal people take their own lives. What a disgrace to a venerable profession.

Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism and a consultant to the Patients Rights Council. His latest book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine.

Netherlands: New push for suicide pill

This article was published on the HOPE Australia website on May 24.

B

Paul Russell

y Paul Russell, the director of Hope Australia

There’s a question that I have put to those who are pushing for euthanasia and assisted suicide laws on occasion. Put simply I ask: If you are successful in your push for law reform on this subject, will you celebrate your victory and then close down your organisation? After all, if the objective is reached, what else is there to do?

I expect that there would be ‘rank-and-file’ members of the various societies and organisations on this bandwagon who may well think: job done, back to the gardening (or other pursuits). But not so the leadership.

Unless a parliament is willing, in the first instance, to legislate euthanasia and assisted suicide for everyone in any circumstance, there will always be more to agitate for. Of course, such a bold initial push is never likely to happen. That’s why, in observing repeated attempts to legislate in my home state of South Australia, we see variations on the theme in the many different ways that bills have been designed and presented, all with the primary goal of getting something (anything!) on the statutes. Go for the full agenda and failure is guaranteed; go for a minimalist approach and maybe success will come, enabling, thereafter, the possibility of an incremental agenda.

We are seeing this in Canada at the moment with the excise of euthanasia and assisted suicide for minors and for mental health issues from the debate and the promise of revisiting that agenda in three years’ time. Even in Belgium, which enacted the most liberal of euthanasia laws in 2002, we saw the amendment to include children pass in the parliament in 2013. In Holland there is continued agitation for euthanasia under the term ‘tired of life’ or ‘completed life’, ostensibly for people over the age of 70. The Dutch parliament is also looking into child euthanasia whilst already having euthanasia available for ‘emancipated minors’ from the age of 12.

Today the Dutch news is reporting that two euthanasia organisations are renewing their push for the so-called ‘Drion Pill’ to be available ‘for people who do not qualify for euthanasia.’

Note: The 'Drion's pill' is a suicide pill proposed originally by Huib Drion, a former Dutch Supreme Court judge and professor of civil law, who argued that people aged 75 or over should be able to end their own lives.

The Dutch Times says that ‘The NVVE wants to launch a test with a suicide pill for people age 75 years and older next year. The Cooperatie Laatste Wil wants the experiment to include all legal adults, people 18 years and older.’

The report adds that both groups will soon submit proposals for such ‘experiments’ and that the Dutch Democrats will propose such an experiment ‘by the end of the year’ with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy signalling possible support.

What they expect to find from such an ‘experiment’ is not stated. I’m guessing that deaths will be marked as a success.

Imagine the pressure felt by elderly people in Holland if this pill were ever made available. Rather than people necessarily justifying a request to be made dead, their elderly will find themselves having to justify their will to live!

Even here we see the possibility of a further incremental agenda with one group pushing for more (all adults) than the other (over 75 years of age).

Note well that this agenda is for those who would not qualify for euthanasia. So, while there is no suggestion of a reform to the Dutch euthanasia law of 2001 – one form of incrementalism – we can clearly observe that the broader agenda of the euthanasia groups is still served by this move.

Consider also that if such an idea was presented to parliaments in countries where euthanasia and assisted suicide remained illegal it would be laughed out of session and dismissed as being totally unacceptable. The link between the existence of a euthanasia and assisted suicide regime and the development of what would otherwise be unthinkable cannot be denied.

Make no mistake, once a society accepts that killing patients or helping them to suicide is an acceptable response to any kind of suffering, there is no limit that will hold.

Under-ground euthanasia in the Netherlands.

This article was published on November 28 by Bioedge.

By Michael Cook

The leading Dutch right-to-die society is seeking talks with the Dutch medical association (KNMG) for approval of a “peaceful pill” which will allow its members to kill themselves without the help of a doctor.

As usually happens in the progress of euthanasia, supporters are now telling the media that this already occurs illegally on a vast scale and that legislation is essential to guard against abuses.

People who believe that their lives are “complete”, need a pill, says the Dutch Association for a Voluntary End of Life (NVVE) in a recently-published policy paper. The details have yet to be worked out with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Security and Justice and the KNMG. As the NVVE acknowledges, the peaceful pill could be used to murder people, or taken impulsively by otherwise healthy people, or used by young people with mental health issues. Therefore the NVVE would like to run a pilot project so that authorities will have “scientific research” to back up a decision.

NVVE director Robert Schurink told the media: 

“We see that society wants such a pill, particularly among the babyboomer generation which is not afraid to speak its mind. They want control over the end of their lives.”

For the first time, NVVE and another group, Stiftung De Einder, have acknowledged that they are already promoting a “peaceful pill” outside the existing legal framework. The lethal drugs are ordered from overseas. From China come pills and from Mexico come liquid barbiturates. The packages arrive quickly, sometimes disguised as a birthday card. NRC says that although this arrangement is illegal, there is no chance that the public prosecutor will charge anyone.

About 5300 people are euthanased legally in the Netherlands every year. The NVVE did not disclose how many commit suicide using overseas drugs over and above this figure. De Einder told NRC that it had given advice about its own service to 607 clients last year, although it is unclear how many committed suicide.

One of NVVE’s clients is 75-year-old Jannes Mulder, a doctor who had helped to euthanase several people himself. A feature story in the NRC describes how he contacted China:

Mulder ordered through the mail powder for two people – himself and his wife. Payment was made through Western Union. Two weeks later came a brown envelope with red Chinese postmarks. There was a birthday card for “John”: happy birthday. It is a subterfuge that Chinese suppliers often use. Inside the card was a sachet of powder. Mulder put it in the basement. Those around him know about it -- Jannes H. Mulder is in charge of his own life. He will soon test some of the powder on his goldfish. "I want to make sure it works," he says.

NRC also tells the story of another client, 83-year-old Tom van Manen, who stirred the Chinese powder into his breakfast yoghurt one morning in 2012 with the help of his daughter, Kika Notten. It sounds like a typical “completed life” scenario – except that van Manen was quite demented and may not have understood what he was doing. Ms Notten knew that she was in a grey zone, legally speaking. However, she was careful to inform a local doctor and two police officers. They did nothing.

Nitschke - "an undetectable death" or murder?

This article was written by Paul Russell, the director of HOPE Australia, and published on August 26, on the HOPE Australia blog.

Paul Russell

By Paul Russell

The recent news of the suspension of Philip Nitschke’s medical licence pending the medical board of Australia’s investigations is good news. But many have asked: why has it taken so long?

The trigger issue for the medical board was the suicide death of Perth man, Nigel Brayley; Beyond Blue chairman, Jeff Kennett and others arguing that, in Nitschke’s contact with Brayley, he had a duty of care to try and stop Brayley from taking his own life.

Nitschke has claimed that his contact with Brayley was not medical in nature and therefore created no onus upon him to attempt to stop Brayley. But a medical professional is a medical professional 24/7 and not simply during a scheduled clinical consultation. There are many professions in our community that hold some sort of mandated civic duty at all times; surely a doctor is no different?

That it has taken so long for the ubiquitous head of the Exit ‘death cult’ as journalist Angela Shanahan called it, to find himself ‘in the dock’ is indeed a matter of some frustration for opponents, including this writer. That it eventually did happen was always a safe bet.

Two years ago when I made a complaint to the medical board I did so because of a significant public safety concern arising out of the then latest in Exit death methods – nitrogen gas hypoxia. What made this method even more of a concern than the other earlier methods was its marketing slogan: “…for an undetectable death…”

The Exit sales blurb talked about this ‘undetectability’ being for those who didn’t want to be remembered as, ‘Uncle so-and-so who killed himself.’ Our concern was more about what was not said – but clearly inferred.

There’s nothing ‘undetectable’ about an Exit nitrogen death if it is truly a do-it-yourself method. The deceased will be found with a gas canister and paraphernalia. Pretty obvious.

So, to be ‘undetectable’ there would need to be a complicit third party who would dispose of the evidence. Now there’s a third party involved; now there’s someone at risk of being charged with the criminal offence of assisting in a suicide.

If that were not enough of a red flag, this ‘undetectability’ provides an opportunity for someone to dispose of someone else with the benefit of being able to avoid suspicion. It’s a rolled-gold method for the most sinister form of elder abuse.

The Brayley case is a ‘smoking gun’, whereas our observations about a real life-and-death risk to the elderly and infirmed, whilst sound and logical, remained theoretical. That is; until July this year in the Utah town of Roy.

Dennis Chamberlain is charged with first degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Jean Chamberlain and trying to make it look like a natural death.

Jean Chamberlain died in February this year. She was ill and undergoing treatment and was in the care of her husband, Dennis, in their Roy home. Dennis Chamberlain did not advise Roy police of Jean’s death, preferring instead, as he later told his family, to call on an LDS Bishop who declared his wife deceased. As a Roy Detective noted, Mrs Chamberlain’s recent illness and visit to a doctor on the morning of her death were reason enough to issue a death certificate at that time.

It was not until months after the death and burial of Jean that her family raised their suspicion that all was not as it seemed after Chamberlain had told conflicting stories about what had happened that day in February.

Police issued a warrant to search Chamberlain’s home. According to one news report, they found:

On his computer police say they found “methods on how to commit suicide and other resources such as doctors to sign death certificates.” 

Police claim he bought “an oxygen mask and a book titled “the Peaceful Pill Handbook”. 

They also found an exit bag, a plastic hoodie used for suffocation.

The Roy Police Press release of the 1st of July made the claimed subterfuge even clearer:

After several warrants and subpoenas were written and served by investigators, it was found that Dennis had been researching ways to commit suicide and other resources, such as how to find doctors to sign death certificates, and searches that were specific to certain medications, chemicals, and poisons, which could be used to help end your life, and not be detected at autopsy. (PR: sound familiar!) 

Also located was a book which is an instructional book on how to commit suicide without it being detected in an autopsy, this book could also be used as a guide to commit a homicide, and it was found that Dennis had purchased items mentioned in this book the day Jean had died, and it is believed that these items were used to end Jean’s life.

The Salt Lake Tribune puts it this way:

Detectives also learned that Chamberlain allegedly purchased an oxygen mask and a book titled “The Peaceful Pill Handbook,” a euthanasia and suicide how-to manual. Several areas of the book pertaining to the use of nitrogen gas and making of a so-called “Exit Bag” – a plastic bag with a drawstring to put over one’s head – were marked, the affidavit contends. 

Mrs Chamberlain’s body was subsequently exhumed for examination. The specifics of what this autopsy discovered have not been made known, but the Roy Police did confirm that ‘medical examiners found evidence of asphyxiation'.

A preliminary hearing on the charges has been set for the 29th of August.

Australia's Dr. Death - Philip Nitschke - may lose his medical licence

Philip Nitschke

An article written by Tom Bowden and published yesterday in Adelaide Now is reporting that Philip Nitschke (Australia's Dr Death) may lose his medical license.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) appears to be investigating Nitschke based on his involvement in the death of a woman who died from ingesting Nembutal, a drug that is used by veterinarians to euthanize large animals. Nitschke was visiting this woman, and the AHPRA appears to be investigating whether or not his advice to her constituted a breach of professional conduct.

The AHPRA has stated that their investigation into Philip Nitschke is impartial, Nitschke is accusing a doctor who is involved with a right to life group of influencing the AHPRA in the investigation.

Nitschke has been counselling people as to how to commit suicide for many years. His "peaceful pill" handbook not only explains how to commit suicide, but also where and how to obtain the means of suicide.

In February 2010 I wrote an article about a report of 51 people in Australia who died from Nembutal use that was in the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

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.

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.

Even though the report only referred to 51 Nembutal deaths, Nitschke stated that he knew of between 250 - 300 Nembutal deaths, and when questioned about the deaths that were related to depressed people Nitschke stated:

"There will be some casualties."

The AHPRA needs to expand their investigation into Nitschke. They need to: analyse his "peaceful pill" book, seek out people, who are alive today, who were depressed and suicidal and contacted Nitschke, and they need to investigate other Nembutal related deaths.

Nitschke appears to be similar to a person who trolls the side of a cliff looking for people who are thinking about suicide. He doesn't actually push them off, but with a few words of encouragement and suggestions as to how to effectively jump, he convinces them to jump.

Nitschke appears to be trolling the internet for death clients.

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition


I was googling stories on assisted suicide when I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The first link in the search engine was the link to Philip Nitschke's suicide instruction manual. 

To make it worse, when I clicked the second group of articles the link for the suicide instruction manual was first again.

I understand how google works. Organizations and individuals can pay a fee for advertising on google or to have their product or website - come up first - in the search engine when certain words are google searched. It appears that Exit International, Nitschke's organization, must be investing serious money to have the link to Nitschke's products appear as the #1 and the #11 link on the google search engine.

I should not be surprised. Assisted suicide and euthanasia represent Nitschke's livelihood. Every online sale of his suicide manual gives Nitschke approximately $75 in his jeans. He appears to be selling thousands of his online maunuals.

Recently Barbara Coombs Lee, the leader of Compassion & Choices, wrote an article that suggested that she hoped that, internet suicide predator, William Melchert-Dinkel, will be convicted of assisted suicide in Minnesota for counseling and abetting, via the internet, at least five people to commit suicide.

One of Melchert-Dinkel's victims was Canadian Nadia Kajouji who was a first year student in Ottawa at Carlton University. Kajouji was very depressed and seeking advice for her depression when she bumped into Melchert-Dinkel who was trolling the internet looking for someone like Kajouji who was thinking of commiting suicide.

Is Philip Nitschke different than Melchert-Dinkel?

Last February I wrote about a report of 51 people in Australia who died from Nembutal use that was in the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

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.

Even though the report only referred to 51 Nembutal deaths, Nitschke stated that he knew of between 250 - 300 Nembutal deaths.

The further problem is that Nitschke craves the media attention. Everytime the media publishes a report on his antics, he gains attention that creates greater awareness of his products, and in turn he sells more suicide manuals.

Melchert-Dinkel

Melchert-Dinkel, who was a nurse, admitted to counseling and abeting the suicide deaths of at least 5 people who were depressed, whereas Nitschke has been involved, even if indirectly, with the deaths of many people who were depressed or mentally ill.

The only real difference is that Melchert-Dinkel was motivated by wanting to watch the suicide deaths, like a voyeur, via his webcam. Nitschke appears to be motivated by the fame he has gained and the financial windfall he is making from his online sales of his suicide manuals.

Link an Australian news article on the issue: http://www.news.com.au/national/hundreds-hoarding-death-drugs-claims-philip-nitschke/story-e6frfkvr-1225831706648

Links to previous blog articles: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/06/nitschke-continues-to-promote-nembutal.html

http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/10/nitschke-launches-online-euthanasia.html

Nitschke continues to promote lethal veterinary drugs via the internet

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, continues to promote the purchase of Nembutal, a drug used by veterinarians for euthanasia, through his website and "chatroom" to people who purchase his peaceful pill book.

In the June - July, 2010 version of the Exit International newsletter Nitschke published an article - Nembutal by Mail: Online Trade in Barbituates.

In March I commented on a report from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine of 51 people in Australia who died from lethal veterinary drugs.

My blog 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.

Link to the blog comment: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/search/label/Nembutal

The recent article in Exit International Newsletter reports that some people have ordered and received lethal veterinary drugs while others have sent money and been ripped off by the online veterinary clinic.

Nitschke continues to be completely irresponsible in his promotion of lethal drugs. He refuses to acknowledge that the colateral damage associated with his escapades threatens the lives people who live with depression and mental illness, who need caring, professional support and not death.

Further to that, his concept that he is somehow forwarding the cause of a human right is particularly disturbing. A human right to die is a misnomer at best.

The fact is that Nitschke recklessly abandons vulnerable people who deserve social, and psychological support, excellent care, effective pain management and a caring community. We do not need a "cowboy" who promotes lethal doses of drugs for anyone and everyone.

It is about time that the world community establish protocols for shipments of lethal doses. This is not about freedom, this is about direct and intentional killing of people at the most vulnerable time of their life.

Is Philip Nitschke much different than William Melchert-Dinkel?

A comment in the cnet news http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20007556-71.html?tag=mncol;txt#comments got me thinking. Is Philip Nitscke, (Australia's Dr. Death) actually different than William Melchert-Dinkel, the Minnesota nurse who counseled and abetted Nadia Kajouji, a first year Carlton University student, to commit suicide in 2008.

William Melchert Dinkel

Philip Nitschke

Melchert-Dinkel provided information and encouraged Nadia Kajouji to commit suicide. He did this over the internet through online chat. Kajouji was experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. Melchert-Dinkel trolled the internet to find someone like Kajouji because it appears that he enjoyed encouraging and watching death.

Nitschke promotes his online books and has a website that encourages methods for people to commit suicide. He claims that it is all about freedom, but he is not concerned whether the person who downloads his suicide information is depressed, drugged out, or dying. It appears that he is using the terminally ill to accomplish a philosophical goal, that being the right of anyone at anytime to die. Nitschke was reported to have said in a National Review article concerning the "Peaceful Pill" that it should be available to troubled teens.

How are these areas similar?

Melchert-Dinkel and Nitschke both have a history of taking advantage of suicidal or depressed and vulnerable people.

Both use the internet to protect them from the law or social recrimination.

Both have been directly connected to the deaths of people who were vulnerable and needing help.

At least Melchert-Dinkel was willing to seek help for his crime.

Link to previous articles about Philip Nitschke: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2009/03/suicide-by-mail.html
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/12/australias-dr-death-designs-new-suicide.html

Link to a previous article about Melchert-Dinkel: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/search/label/Nadia%20Kajouji
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Did students commit 'suicide by laptop'?

Whatever happened, no one may ever truly understand.

The facts, as reported by the Daily Mail, suggest that two students from Scotland checked into a hotel around 80 miles from Edinburgh University, where they were both studying.

When staff were concerned that Robert Miller, 20, and James Robertson, 19, were still in their room after check-out time, they reportedly opened their door and discovered them both dead.

Police reportedly examined a laptop in the students' room and, after police said they were not treating the deaths as suspicious, there are reportedly fears in the students' home communities that the dead men may have been influenced by the ideas of Dr. Philip Nitschke, an Australian campaigner for legal euthanasia.

In 1996, Nitschke created the Deliverance Machine, a device that involved a laptop that was connected to a syringe driver. With just one push of a key, the device, outlawed in 1997, delivers a lethal injection.

Edinburgh University is reportedly working with the authorities to try to find more evidence of what might have led to these students' deaths.

These reports will inevitably lead to renewed debate about the Web offering more information, both "bad" or "good," being made immediately available to those who seek it, or even to those who merely happen to come across it by chance.

Should information about assisted suicide, self-harm and other difficult societal aspects be freely available?

Link to the original article in the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286170/Laptop-suicide-riddle-brilliant-students-dead-hotel-room.html

Is Philip Nitschke - Dr. Death coming to Washington State?

A media release by Exit International yesterday, slammed the Australian government for announcing that it plans to have mandatory internet filtering systems in Australia.

The Australian government has been concerned about how Exit International has skirted the law by providing suicide information, but by also using modern technology to counsel suicide.

Nitschke claims that the "Clean Feed" is the final nail in the coffin for promoting assisted suicide in Australia.

Nitschke then explains that the Australian government amended the Customs Act in 2001 to make it illegal to import printed material that promoted assisted suicide. In 2006 the Australian government introduced the Suicide Related Materials Offences Act which prevented counseling suicide by telephone, fax, email or internet. In 2007 the Australian office of Film and Literature had there decision to allow the distribution of the Peaceful Pill Handbook overturned.

Nitschke's moniker "Dr Death" is not a term of endearment by Australians. His antics in relation to Nancy Crick and Graeme Wylie

When you consider that Nitschke has had his activities completely limited by the Australian government, it should not surprise us that he has set-up offices in Bellingham - Washington State. Bellingham is a border town, giving him easy access to Canada.

All accounts indicate that Nitschke may soon set-up shop in Washington State and regularly go effect the political scene in Canada.

If this doesn't concern you - go to: http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory060501.shtml

Australia's 'Dr Death' (Philip Nitschke) is selling euthanasia kits in the UK for £35

An article in the Gaurdian paper today (March 29) in the UK explains how Philip Nitscke, Australia's 'Dr Death' and the president of Exit International is selling euthanasia kits to his contacts in the UK for £35.

Link to the article in the Gaurdian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/29/assisted-suicide-doctor-philip-nitschke

The article states that:

Dr Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician known as Dr Death for his enthusiastic promotion of a person's right to take his own life, believes the UK is a suitable place to run a trial of the kits, which he has been developing in his laboratory. But Nitschke's actions have revived concerns that healthy elderly and vulnerable people will end up killing themselves in the belief that they have become a burden to their families.

Last autumn, Nitschke's organisation, Exit International, provoked uproar in the UK when it held workshops giving people advice on how they could end their lives. One workshop in Bournemouth was cancelled after the council stepped in. However, a similar event went ahead in central London and was reported to have been well attended.

But now Exit is provoking further controversy with its plans to sell the barbiturate-testing kits here. In the latest issue of its magazine Deliverance, Exit explains how it created a purpose-built laboratory to test "end-of-life options". The article continues: "Calibration of the chemicals involved is essential so that those using the test will be certain that the drugs they test will give them a peaceful and reliable death.

"The kit is scheduled for release in the UK in May and will be available internationally shortly after that."

Nitschke said he was launching the kit in response to growing demand. Exit's website carries links to a Mexico-based supplier of lethal barbiturates that are delivered in the post without labels. "These drugs don't come with labels, so people want to have confidence in what they are buying," Nitschke said. "They want to be sure they have the right concentration."

Nitschke plans to sell the kits, which have chemicals that change colour when mixed with lethal barbiturates, for about £35 when he holds his next series of British roadshows, starting in Eastbourne in May. He will also promote Exit's new online DIY suicide workshop.

"We decided to launch in the UK because of its enlightened attitude; many of the things we can do in the UK are banned in Australia," said Nitschke, whose guidebook, The Peaceful Pill Handbook, co-written with Dr Fiona Stewart, is banned in his native country.

What is interesting is that it appears that groups that oppose and groups that promote euthanasia are wanting to stop Nitschke from selling his kits in the UK. The article quotes Sarah Wootten from Dignity in Dying as saying:

"The answer is not DIY kits or books, but a fully safeguarded law that protects the vulnerable and gives terminally ill adults the choice of an assisted death," said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law on euthanasia. "Regrettably, without such a law, activism like this is likely to continue."

I may be wrong, but in my opinion Sarah Wootton from Dignity in Dying is opposing Nitschke because of his radical appearance rather than his intention of providing anyone and everyone suicide assistance.

Dignity in Dying in the UK and the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO) are members of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies. ERGO works closely with Exit International as well as other groups such as the Final Exit Network, which is also a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.

I am convinced that the distance Dignity in Dying appears to be placing between themselves and Nitschke is more about strategy than an actual difference in ideology.

When I attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies Conference in Toronto (September 2006), Philip Nitschke was a speaker and a participant. I did not notice the delegates from Dying in Dignity or the other groups disagreeing or walking out of the room when Nitschke spoke about the "peaceful pill" or when he suggested that people should receive assisted suicide when they are "tired of living"

At the same conference, I didn't notice the delegates avoiding the display table where Nitschke was explaining how to properly use a turkey bag (Exit Bag) and Helium to assist the suicide of a client (victim).

The article then quoted Peter Saunders from the Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK as saying:

"Nitschke is an extremist and self-publicist who has gained notoriety from conducting how-to-commit-suicide classes," said Peter Saunders, of the Care Not Killing Alliance. "His plan is pushing the outermost boundaries of the law and will exploit and endanger vulnerable British people." An invitation to Nitschke to participate in a debate on euthanasia at Oxford University has been withdrawn amid concerns about his activities.

Saunders is absolutely right about Nitscke, the fact is that similar claims can be made about Dying in Dignity and their goals.

Suicide by mail

Alex Schadenberg

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, has once again proven that he is not concerned whether or not a person is terminally ill, he is not concerned whether or not a person is depressed or otherwise vulnerable, he is only concerned with promoting suicide.

A recent article published in The Australian on March 14, 2009 and written by Julie-Anne Davies is entitled: Suicide drug of choice in mail

It appears that Nitschke found a source for the illegal lethal veterinary drugs from a Mexican supplier who is willing (for a price) to ship by mail order to desperate followers of Nitschke. Nitschke was so confident of his source that he put the information in his "Peaceful Pill" book.

The Australian authorities are right to try to stop the import of the lethal veterinary drug, used to euthanize animals. Nitschke is busy operating a suicide counseling service whereby he is encouraging people to commit suicide and he is helping people plan their suicide.

The article states:

The buyers had learnt about his service from euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke's latest version of his banned book, The Peaceful Pill Handbook, published by Exit International.

Dr Nitschke said he did not expect the mail order option to last for long. "We heard about this guy who's down south of Mexico and we decided to tell people about him in our latest book because he seemed to be offering a reliable service and a good product," he said.

"But it won't last once word gets out."

Assisted Suicide must remain illegal. Out-of-control death gurus such as Nitschke will continue his "ministry" so long as nobody shuts him down. At least the Australian authorities are trying to limit his influence by keeping a watch on his activities.

The article states:

Dr Nitschke's book, The Peaceful Pill Handbook -- the title of which uses a euphemism for a veterinary drug -- was banned in Australia after a special federal law was passed in 2005 making it a crime to use a telephone, fax, email or the internet to discuss or research assisted suicide.

That offence carries a $110,000 fine. An Australian Federal Police spokesperson said no one had been charged with downloading Dr Nitschke's book.

Importing the veterinary drug into Australia carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment or a $550,000 fine.

Notice the amount of money the Mexican veterinary supply shop that sells the drug who are willing to cash in on the desperation of people who are being counseled by Nitschke to commit suicide.

The article states:

"I have sent to Australia, like, eight times with success; the Customs have never stopped any of my ships," Gerardo Aviles Navarro said in an email from Mexico. "I'm very serious; the reason of Exit International to make public my email direction is because they know my seriousness."

One bottle of the drug costs $US350 or $US450 for two bottles, he said.

Nitschke has also been accused by families of taking advantage of people when they were emotionally down. The case of Erin Berg the 39 year old mother of four is a prime example of his lack of concern for people who are emotionally unstable. It was reported at the time that Berg was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

The article states:

The botched suicide of Australian woman Erin Berg in Tijuana, which was revealed in The Australian last year, is blamed for this. The 39-year-old mother of four died in a Mexican hospital a fortnight after drinking a veterinary drug in a Tijuana hotel room.

Her sisters blamed Dr Nitschke in part for their sister's death, after finding she had underlined passages in his first book Killing Me Softly relating to the veterinary drug and obtaining it in Mexico.

My previous blog posting on the Berg family concerns:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/08/grieving-family-wants-suicide-book.html

Link to the article in The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25184478-5013404,00.html

In case you are thinking that legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide would put people like Nitschke out of business, think again. The leading Dutch "Right to Die" organization has decided that their new goal is the legalization of the "Last Will Pill." They are a mainstream right to die group and once again they are not concerned about the vulnerability of people at the most difficult time of their life.

Finally, let's be brutally honest. Legalizing assisted suicide is not going to put Nitscke out of business, but rather give them credibility.

If assisted suicide becomes legal, you will find out that your mother died but you won't know that your sister pressured her, a sister who may have selfish motivs. If it is legal you will be told she wanted to die, and its legal. It won't matter whether the doctor is like Nitschke, or that your sister pressured her, your mother will be dead.

Australia's Dr. Death designs new suicide device

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Philip Nitschke, also known as Australia's Dr. Death, claims to have designed a new suicide device. Nitschke is also one of the early founders of the NuTech group and he is the leader of Exit International, a group that is devoted to developing suicide devices for assisting a suicide.

Suicide devices and methods are nothing new to Nitschke who is also known for his work on the "peaceful pill", a pill that he once said could be used by troubled teens. He is also known for promoting suicide tourism and encouraging people to go to Mexico to obtain veterinary drugs.

Nitschke said the method - which uses legally obtaining household products including a barbecue gas bottle - is “flawless” and has the unique characteristic of being undetectable which will make it harder to prove suicide.

Nitschke is not concerned whether the person who is seeking suicide is depressed or whether his device may be unsafe due to the combustible nature of the gas that his device uses.

Nitscke stated that: “It’s hard to see how the Government could possibly restrict access to common cylinders, and certainly there’s no way they could restrict access to (the gas),”

In the past the Australian government has confiscated his suicide devices and "Exit bags", they have outlawed the suicide counseling service that he operated via the internet and his book that he wrote to promote suicide and assisted suicide methods.

Link to article on suicide manual:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/10/nitschke-launches-online-euthanasia.html

Earlier this year, Nitschke admitted that he did not disqualify Graeme Wylie from assisted suicide, even though he knew that he was suffering from dementia. Nitschke was willing to ignore the fact that Wylie was incompetent to make a proper decision in order to advocate for Wylie to die by suicide.

Link to previous article about Nitschke:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/nitschke-hell-bent-on-assisted-suicide.html

The government is right to protect vulnerable people from Nitschke, who is more concerned about providing the means for people to die than making sure people are actually mentally or emotionally stable.

I am convinced that the media gives Nitschke attention because he offers entertainment. He is constantly creating new ways to break the law, if not the spirit of the law. He is continually promoting suicide, as if it should be the goal of society to encourage people to kill themselves. He is a colorful character. Too bad his entertainment will lead to the death of many vulnerable people.

Link article:
http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com/euthanasia-pioneer-unveils-undetectable-suicide-device-200812267748

Nitschke promotes his suicide machine in Australia

Philip Nitschke is once again promoting suicide. This time Nitschke is promoting a suicide machine that is able to be self-assembled at home.

Nitschke, known as Australia's Dr. Death, and a member of NuTech, an international organization of death lobby radicals who seek to develop new ways to commit suicide.

Nitschke, who has been working for years on the "peaceful pill", a pill that would be made from regular household products. Nitschke was quoted by the National Review online interview as stating that the peaceful pill could be used by troubled teens who wish to commit suicide.

Has Nitschke's lack of success with the suicide pill led him to producing a suicide machine?

At the World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference in Toronto - September 2006, Nitschke emphasized the need for assisted suicide or euthanasia to be available for people who are "tired of living".

Nitschke sells his ideology as providing choice and control for people at the end of their lives. The reality is that Nitschke and his friends are trying to create a universal human right to die. Nitschke and his death lobby followers believe that death is the last freedom that everyone should have access to at any time.

Sadly, many people who are depressed or who live with mental illness, emotional or psychological difficulties, are victimized by death advocates like Nitschke.

Nitschke has created video's, books, websites, and also a suicide counseling service.

If society becomes duped into accepting Nitschke's philosophy of life, we will turn into a nihilistic, negative death obsessed culture that will turn in on itself. In the end it will create a duty to die for anyone who lives with significant disabilities or mental health issues. We only need to examine the Groningen Protocol in the Netherlands to determine the likely outcome of this destructive philosophy

We must reject Nitschke and his philosophy and promote and recognize the innate dignity of each human person. We must build an ethic of quality of life that is derived from the interdependent care for the physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological needs of others.

Link to article on Nitschke's suicide machine
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/18/2449786.htm

New 10 in San Diego Tracks 'Suicide Drug' in Mexico

News 10, a television station news program in San Diego has tracked the sale of 'suicide drugs' in Tijuana Mexico.

The 10News I-Team went undercover to try and find the drug by following the instructions in Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, 'Peaceful Pill' handbook. Nitschke is the leader of the euthanasia lobby group, Exit International.

The online article stated that the I-Team learned that Mexican authorities are cracking down on the sale of Nembutal, a veterinary drug used to euthanize animals, due to the adverse publicity related to a few high profile deaths.

The article then stated that the undercover I-Team unsuccessfully tried four different pharmacies in Tijuana, but they were successful in one pharmacy where they were able to obtain the veterinary drug under a different brand name and with no prescription. The price for the lethal drug was $40.

The I-Team were unable to keep the lethal veterinary drug due to a malfunction in their hidden camera that was spotted by the pharmacy owner who suddenly told them that the drug was no longer available.

The article explains that the I-Team continued travelling south to Rosario where they attempted to purchase Nembutal from a veterinarian's office. They were told that the government is cracking down and that they would require a note from a doctor (probably a veterinarian).

The I-Team also interviewed Faye Girsh, a leader of the San Diego Hemlock Society, a leading euthanasia lobby group in California.

Girsh told the I-Team:

drinking this drug, Nembutal, is "much better then shooting your head off or jumping form a building or in front a train."

Girsh also told the I-Team:

she does have her own stash of Nembutal to use if and when the time comes. She didn't go down to Mexico to get it herself, someone got it for her, and she has great sympathy for those who take that risk.

Girsh did tell the I-Team that:
she doesn't agree with is traveling to Mexico to buy this drug since it is illegal to bring back to the U.S.
Paula Goodman-Cruz, the medical bioethics director from Kaiser Permanente, told the I-Team:

Sympathy is one thing, but no one but doctors should have access to that drug.

It's not only illegal but also unethical. The solution is better end-of-life care.

She says less pain and more comfort could prevent people from risking their lives south of the border for the ability to end their lives at home.

Once again, the euthanasia lobby refuses to recognize how their promotion of suicide methods and drugs are irresponsibly causing vulnerable people to seek death.

Even Faye Girsh has a stash of illegal drug hidden for a future possible use.

I need to ask the question. What is it with the euthanasia lobby that makes them so obsessed with death that they feel the need to assist people, in all and every medical condition, to kill themselves or they seek to kill themselves, at some unforseen time in the future.

We need a society that cares for people, not kills them.

Link to 10News.com in San Diego:
http://www.10news.com/investigations/17976535/detail.html

Link to a previous blog entry concerning the Mexican crack down on Nembutal:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/10/beware-of-mexico-drug-risks-and-rip.html

Dying in Dignity leader - Edward Turner questions the assisted suicide death of former Rugby Star - Daniel James

Once again it appears that leaders of the euthanasia lobby group - Dying in Dignity - in the UK have questionned the more radical actions of the world-wide euthanasia lobby.

Last week Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, had his appearance at a Irish University cancelled after Dying in Dignity leaders branded his advice as irresponsible and illegal. Nitschke is known for his "peaceful pill" handbook and his suicide promoting and counseling service on the internet.

Today Edward Turner, a trustee of the lobby group Dying in Dignity in the UK, questionned the actions of those who supported Daniel James who travelled to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide at the Swiss Dignitas Assisted Suicide clinic.

Turner stated that while he would like to see a change in UK law to allow 'assisted dying' for terminally ill patients, there was a 'distinction' between those cases and that of Daniel James who whilst paralysed, probably had 'several decades' of life ahead of him.

Turner had accompanied his terminally ill mother to the Swiss Dignitas Clinic. His mother had progressive supranuclear palsy.

Turner was quoted as saying:

"The vast majority of the population wants assisted dying for the terminally ill to be legalised ... but Dan wasn't terminally ill.
Although I advocate assisted dying, I'm basically against assisted suicide."

On the other hand, Baroness Warnock supports the assisted suicide death of Daniel James. She said:

"we had a 'moral obligation to other people to take seriously reached decisions with regard to their own lives equally seriously."

Link to the article on UK's Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1078877/Suicide-rugby-player-decades-live-says-euthanasia-campaigner-mother-died-Swiss-suicide-clinic.html

My thoughts on the case of Daniel James (23) lead me to think about a Canadian hero, Steven Fletcher the member of parliament for Charleswood - St. James - Assiniboia in Winnipeg Manitoba and the current parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health.


I do not know what Fletcher would say about James's death, but I do know that Fletcher became a complete quadriplegic in 1996, after hitting a moose with his vehicle while travelling to a geological engineering job in northern Manitoba. The accident left him completely paralysed below the neck, and he now requires 24 hour a day attendant care. He was unable to speak for several months, and only regained this ability after a long process of recovery.

A comment in a blog about Daniel James said:
"So Mr James "had decades of life ahead of him" Until you have walked a mile in his shoes how can you know what it feels like to live his life. His parents may suffer a great loss but at least they know they respected his wishes.

Steven Fletcher has lived through similar experiences that Daniel James would have been experiences. He handled the adversity by rising up to become a source of inspiration for people with disabilies.

I also think about my friend Alison Davis, the leader of the group No Less Human in the UK.

Alison was in a similar situation as Daniel James. She wanted to die and attempted to commit suicide. If she had "supportive parents" as James supposedly has, Alison would be dead today. Instead Alison is an active leader of a disability rights group that supports the equality and dignity of people with disabilities and rejects the concept that equality and dignity includes assisted suicide.

James may have also become a great inspiration for others if he had not been abandoned to his supposed wishes.

For more information about Steven Fletcher go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Fletcher

How did Nitschke test the "peaceful pill?"

Wesley Smith has asked the poignant question: How did Nitschke test the "peaceful pill?"

Go to his blog and read.

Link to Wesley Smith's blog comment:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2008/10/scandal-of-unasked-question-how.html