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Euthanasia radicals are always trying to pretend that all they want is access to assisted suicide for the terminally ill in unbearable pain for whom nothing can be done to alleviate suffering. This is a false premise, of course. But it is not the true agenda of the movement, which is really about eventually getting to the place of near death on demand.

Proof of this assertion can be found in the ongoing World Federation of Right to Die Societies Convention in Toronto. One of the prime presenters at the conference is Australian physician and euthanasia absolutist Philip Nitschke, who was paid thousands of dollars by the Hemlock Society (now merged into the euphemistically named Compassion and Choices) to develop the “peaceful pill,” a suicide concoction that is designed to allow ready access to suicide for those who live in countries where assisted suicide and euthanasia are illegal. (Nitschke now says that the peaceful pill resulted from elderly people pooling their resources to help create it. But he has worked on the project, funded by euthanasia advocates, for years.)

How radical is Nitschke? He has supported suicide for “troubled teens,” and has urged that the peaceful pill be available in supermarkets. (For proof, see this Q and A interview with Nitschke from 2001.)

Euthanasia ideologues often try to distance themselves from Nitschke, and for obvious reasons. If the public got a true whiff of the ultimate agenda, the euthanasia political movement would be doomed.

But the truth is that Nitschke is widely liked and respected within the movement. That is why he is always invited to speak at high visibility euthanasia conventions such as at Toronto, where he is introducing his peaceful pill to the attendees.

The moral of the story: Don’t listen to what these advocates say. Watch out who they hang out with. After all, we are known by the friends we keep.


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