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After backlash, 'Dr. Death' leaves suicide collar home while promoting suicide in UK
Philip "Dr. Death" Nitschke promoted his new suicide collar last week but chose not to bring it with him to the UK, which is again considering the legalization of assisted suicide.
After a previous assisted suicide bill failed to pass Parliament, another has been introduced.
Philip Nitschke is the founder of Exit International, an assisted suicide group, and the creator of the "Sarco" suicide pod.
He has also created a suicide collar, which he calls "Kairos."
Nitschke planned to demonstrate how to use Kairos at a sold-out event this weekend, just six days before a planned vote on the new assisted suicide bill.
He went ahead with his talk promoting assisted suicide, but left the collar in Holland for fear it would be confiscated.
MPs and pro-life advocates called on the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to block Nitschke from entering the UK for a sold-out event in which he would demonstrate his Kairos collar. The collar works by inflating two balloons which put pressure on the carotid artery, causing the wearer to pass out and then die. "It works like an airbag in a car: press the button, it bangs, you pass out and die," he previously said. It does not appear that anyone has actually used the collar yet, though earlier this year, he claimed he had a woman in Switzerland who would be his first "test subject."
Nitschke's demonstration was initially scheduled for September 5, less than a week before a planned vote on the UK's second assisted suicide bill. There was near-immediate backlash.
“It is deeply disturbing that Philip Nitschke wishes to advertise his latest sinister suicide device in this country just days before the nation marks Suicide Prevention Day next Thursday," Sir John Hayes CBE MP, former Cabinet Minister and one of Parliament’s longest-serving MPs, told Right to Life UK. “I am calling on the Home Secretary to urgently review the wisdom of allowing Dr Nitschke into the country for this reason. We should not be promoting suicide. The planned event is also a sobering reminder of how an assisted suicide industry would likely emerge and be promoted should MPs vote next week to change the law in this area.”
Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan, Chief Executive of Right To Life UK, added:
Just days before MPs vote on Lauren Edwards’ assisted suicide Bill, Philip Nitschke plans to come to the UK to demonstrate his new ‘suicide collar’.
We are calling on the Home Secretary to urgently intervene to prevent Nitschke from entering the UK to demonstrate and promote this dangerous device.
This is not the first time Nitschke has set his sights on the UK. He previously announced plans to launch a service using his Sarco suicide pod here if the last assisted suicide Bill became law. Leading legal academics confirmed that the broad wording of that Bill would allow the Sarco to be used in Britain if it secured the approval of the Health Secretary.
Lauren Edwards’ Bill retains the same provision. It explicitly allows a device to be prepared to enable someone to self-administer a lethal substance, opening the door to Sarco pods being used for assisted suicides here.
Nitschke's talk went on as planned, but he ultimately chose not to bring the physical collar with him.
"I have left the device in the Netherlands. I feared it would be stopped at customs. We are under pressure from authorities about what they call 'giving dangerous information to vulnerable people,'" he told the Daily Mail. "It's a difficult environment. The device is not expensive to make but we are currently in the testing phase and it would be a real setback to lose it."
He further insinuated that the device could be a tool for people who want to commit suicide, even when it isn't legal, saying, "People are a little worried or frustrated by the slow pace of legislated change in the country. So they often look around and ask what else is available."
Nitschke is an ardent supporter of suicide, having made numerous efforts to promote it. This includes publishing a handbook online with information about how to commit suicide, called the “Peaceful Pill Book.” It was previously available on Amazon, with the suggestion that people interested in the book also buy sodium nitrate. Amazon specifically recommended “a small scale to measure the right dose” and “Tagamet to prevent vomiting up the liquid.”
Nitschke also came out in support of Kenneth Law, a Canadian man who sold over 1,200 similar suicide kits to people around the world, causing countless deaths. Nitschke praised Law as entrepreneurial, and even included him in Exit International materials. But after Law's arrest, Nitschke said Law's mistake was selling the kits indiscriminately.
“The information got on to the internet, younger people started to take it and die. Now the parents of younger people who end their lives are understandably very distressed," Nitschke said. "They were very unhappy about us. They said, 'why did you publish that information?' But they said: ‘Yes, but look at all these people that are using it; now all these teenagers are dying."
And while Nitschke has seemingly not yet used the Kairos device, his Sarco suicide pod has been used at least once. It works by flooding the compartment with nitrogen, which causes nitrogen hypoxia, meaning the person suffocates to death. A 64-year-old American woman was the first to die in it, for which Nitschke came under investigation. Far from being quick, peaceful, and painless, the woman reportedly took nearly 30 minutes to die. As Live Action News previously reported:
Though she was alleged to be unconscious within 30 seconds, a motion-activated camera turned on in less than three minutes. The window to the outside of the pod was fogged up, and suddenly had a dark spot on it, which Willet said was likely due to the woman’s body cramping, and her knees hitting the window. At just over six minutes in to her suicide, an alarm began to sound; [Florian] Willet, who was on the phone with Nitschke, seemed concerned.
“She’s still alive, Philip,” he said.
It reportedly took the woman 30 minutes to die. Later, a forensic scientist said she had “serious neck injuries” reminiscent of strangulation, though a source from Last Resort said the woman’s medical diagnosis of skull base osteomyelitis caused the marks.
Nitschke has also promoted implanting "kill switches" into dementia patients. These would have an automatic timer to go off on schedule to kill the patient if the individual did not turn off the alarm when prompted.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·After backlash, 'Dr. Death' leaves suicide collar home while promoting suicide in UK
Philip "Dr. Death" Nitschke promoted his new suicide collar last week but chose not to bring it with him to the UK, which is again considering the legalization of assisted suicide.
After a previous assisted suicide bill failed to pass Parliament, another has been introduced.
Philip Nitschke is the founder of Exit International, an assisted suicide group, and the creator of the "Sarco" suicide pod.
He has also created a suicide collar, which he calls "Kairos."
Nitschke planned to demonstrate how to use Kairos at a sold-out event this weekend, just six days before a planned vote on the new assisted suicide bill.
He went ahead with his talk promoting assisted suicide, but left the collar in Holland for fear it would be confiscated.
MPs and pro-life advocates called on the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to block Nitschke from entering the UK for a sold-out event in which he would demonstrate his Kairos collar. The collar works by inflating two balloons which put pressure on the carotid artery, causing the wearer to pass out and then die. "It works like an airbag in a car: press the button, it bangs, you pass out and die," he previously said. It does not appear that anyone has actually used the collar yet, though earlier this year, he claimed he had a woman in Switzerland who would be his first "test subject."
Nitschke's demonstration was initially scheduled for September 5, less than a week before a planned vote on the UK's second assisted suicide bill. There was near-immediate backlash.
“It is deeply disturbing that Philip Nitschke wishes to advertise his latest sinister suicide device in this country just days before the nation marks Suicide Prevention Day next Thursday," Sir John Hayes CBE MP, former Cabinet Minister and one of Parliament’s longest-serving MPs, told Right to Life UK. “I am calling on the Home Secretary to urgently review the wisdom of allowing Dr Nitschke into the country for this reason. We should not be promoting suicide. The planned event is also a sobering reminder of how an assisted suicide industry would likely emerge and be promoted should MPs vote next week to change the law in this area.”
Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan, Chief Executive of Right To Life UK, added:
Just days before MPs vote on Lauren Edwards’ assisted suicide Bill, Philip Nitschke plans to come to the UK to demonstrate his new ‘suicide collar’.
We are calling on the Home Secretary to urgently intervene to prevent Nitschke from entering the UK to demonstrate and promote this dangerous device.
This is not the first time Nitschke has set his sights on the UK. He previously announced plans to launch a service using his Sarco suicide pod here if the last assisted suicide Bill became law. Leading legal academics confirmed that the broad wording of that Bill would allow the Sarco to be used in Britain if it secured the approval of the Health Secretary.
Lauren Edwards’ Bill retains the same provision. It explicitly allows a device to be prepared to enable someone to self-administer a lethal substance, opening the door to Sarco pods being used for assisted suicides here.
Nitschke's talk went on as planned, but he ultimately chose not to bring the physical collar with him.
"I have left the device in the Netherlands. I feared it would be stopped at customs. We are under pressure from authorities about what they call 'giving dangerous information to vulnerable people,'" he told the Daily Mail. "It's a difficult environment. The device is not expensive to make but we are currently in the testing phase and it would be a real setback to lose it."
He further insinuated that the device could be a tool for people who want to commit suicide, even when it isn't legal, saying, "People are a little worried or frustrated by the slow pace of legislated change in the country. So they often look around and ask what else is available."
Nitschke is an ardent supporter of suicide, having made numerous efforts to promote it. This includes publishing a handbook online with information about how to commit suicide, called the “Peaceful Pill Book.” It was previously available on Amazon, with the suggestion that people interested in the book also buy sodium nitrate. Amazon specifically recommended “a small scale to measure the right dose” and “Tagamet to prevent vomiting up the liquid.”
Nitschke also came out in support of Kenneth Law, a Canadian man who sold over 1,200 similar suicide kits to people around the world, causing countless deaths. Nitschke praised Law as entrepreneurial, and even included him in Exit International materials. But after Law's arrest, Nitschke said Law's mistake was selling the kits indiscriminately.
“The information got on to the internet, younger people started to take it and die. Now the parents of younger people who end their lives are understandably very distressed," Nitschke said. "They were very unhappy about us. They said, 'why did you publish that information?' But they said: ‘Yes, but look at all these people that are using it; now all these teenagers are dying."
And while Nitschke has seemingly not yet used the Kairos device, his Sarco suicide pod has been used at least once. It works by flooding the compartment with nitrogen, which causes nitrogen hypoxia, meaning the person suffocates to death. A 64-year-old American woman was the first to die in it, for which Nitschke came under investigation. Far from being quick, peaceful, and painless, the woman reportedly took nearly 30 minutes to die. As Live Action News previously reported:
Though she was alleged to be unconscious within 30 seconds, a motion-activated camera turned on in less than three minutes. The window to the outside of the pod was fogged up, and suddenly had a dark spot on it, which Willet said was likely due to the woman’s body cramping, and her knees hitting the window. At just over six minutes in to her suicide, an alarm began to sound; [Florian] Willet, who was on the phone with Nitschke, seemed concerned.
“She’s still alive, Philip,” he said.
It reportedly took the woman 30 minutes to die. Later, a forensic scientist said she had “serious neck injuries” reminiscent of strangulation, though a source from Last Resort said the woman’s medical diagnosis of skull base osteomyelitis caused the marks.
Nitschke has also promoted implanting "kill switches" into dementia patients. These would have an automatic timer to go off on schedule to kill the patient if the individual did not turn off the alarm when prompted.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Cassy Cooke
·International
Right to Life UK
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·International
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Pop Culture
Cassy Cooke
·Pop Culture
Cassy Cooke
·