Philip Nitschke, as I have repeatedly written, believes essentially in death on demand. He says so again in the wake of the suicide of woman he “counseled:”
“Nitschke insisted that healthy people of sound mind, who were mature enough, should have the right to take their own lives if that’s what they wanted. “Yes, otherwise it effectively disregards and disrespects their views,” he told AAP. “We are not uncomfortable with this debate going on.”
Nitschke, who is on tour in New Zealand, was commenting after the Sunday Star Times newspaper published details about a physically healthy 68-year-old woman who took her own life. The woman killed herself in her Wellington home with drugs she smuggled in from Mexico after seeking advice from Nitschke’s euthanasia group, Exit International.
A friend claimed the woman had been depressed, and said people must be aware that such incidents could stem from Nitschke’s euthanasia campaign. But Nitschke, who identified the woman as former Sydney resident Ann Wheble, denied she had been depressed and had simply exercised her desire to end her life in March 2006.
This is the true agenda of the euthanasia/assisted suicide movement. Nitschke is just more candid. And the broader permissibility that is ultimately intended is what the debate should be all about.
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