'Suicide pod' inventor defends spread of suicide handbook online

Philip Nitschke, the euthanasia campaigner known as "Dr. Death," is defending his decision to publish suicide information online even after hundreds of people have died as a result.

Key Takeaways:

• Philip Nitschke is a euthanasia campaigner and founder of Exit International.

• He has published a handbook online giving instructions on how to commit suicide via a specific method used by Kenneth Law, who sold over 1,200 suicide kits to people around the world, causing countless deaths.

• Nitschke remained unapologetic in recent remarks concerning Law's case and his victims.

The Details:

At a recent seminar in London, Nitschke addressed the controversy surrounding Kenneth Law. He admitted that Law had learned how to create the suicide kits using information obtained from Nitschke. He had also attended one of Nitschke's assisted suicide seminars in Toronto.

As previously reported by Live Action News, Nitschke published a handbook online with information about how to commit suicide:

On Amazon, one seller (which Live Action News will not list here) has a copy of Philip Nitschke’s “Peaceful Pill Book.” Recommended with it is a pure form of sodium nitrate, which a lawsuit claims has no household purpose. The only reason for buying it would be to commit suicide, and along with Nitschke’s book, Amazon recommended “a small scale to measure the right dose” and “Tagamet to prevent vomiting up the liquid.”

Nitschke admitted that not only did he teach Law how to create and sell the suicide kits, but he also actively directed people to buy from him.

“An entrepreneurial character, who came to my workshop in Toronto a while ago when I told them about this wonderful new substance, decided to start selling it — a chap called Ken Law," Nitschke said. "And he sold it and sold it and sold it to anyone who wanted it.”

Then, when Amazon stopped selling the suicide kits, Nitsckhe sent people directly to Law.

“We published Ken Law’s contact details in the book,” Nitschke said, referring to an Exit International handbook. “We said, look, Amazon don’t sell it anymore, go to Ken Law — and they did.”

He also shrugged off the grief and outrage experienced by parents whose teenaged children died using the suicide kits, saying the information was only meant for Exit International members. Nitschke said:

“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. 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."

The Backstory:

Law, who lives in Ontario, Canada, has been arrested for selling over 1,200 suicide kits online, causing the deaths of nearly 100 people in the United Kingdom alone. At least one of his victims was underage, and another was a deaf content creator. Law has been investigated by 40 countries and 11 Ontario police forces, but Law claims he was doing "God's work."

In addition to his victims in the United Kingdom, Law was found to have killed people in Canada, Italy, and New Zealand, though it may be impossible to truly know how many suicides Law facilitated.

And despite the horror of what Law did, Nitschke defended even Law's sale of the kits to people who aren't terminally ill.

“It’s a fundamental human right,” Nitschke said. “Kenneth was being a little unrestrictive. Elderly people have this idea that they should have a right to access the substances, but they’re not terribly sympathetic to the idea of teenagers going out there and buying a substance ... He’s helped them achieve their goals. We’re watching this trial with great interest.”

Nitschke himself has come under investigation this year, after an American woman became the first to die in his suicide pod, which he calls "Sarco." It reportedly took the woman nearly 30 minutes to die, and there were reportedly strangulation marks on her neck. He has also championed the idea of an implanted "kill switch" into dementia patients, which would go off automatically and kill the patient if the individual did not turn off the alarm when prompted.

This, Nitschke said, would solve the "dementia dilemma."

The Bottom Line:

Nitschke's extremism demonstrates just how quickly assisted suicide slides down a slippery slope. Far from being used only to avoid a long, painful death, it is championed as a suicide free-for-all, with anyone who no longer wants to live being offered a way to die.