65 Facts About Philip Nitschke

Philip Haig Nitschke is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International.

Philip Nitschke campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Government of Australia.

In 2015, Philip Nitschke burned his medical practising certificate in response to what he saw as onerous conditions that violated his right to free speech, imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia.

Philip Nitschke has been referred to in the media as "Dr Death" or "the Elon Musk of assisted suicide".

Philip Nitschke was born in 1947 in Ardrossan, South Australia, the son of school teachers Harold and Gweneth Philip Nitschke.

Philip Nitschke studied physics at the University of Adelaide, gaining a PhD from Flinders University in laser physics in 1972.

Philip Nitschke graduated from the University of Sydney Medical School in 1989.

Philip Nitschke had encouraged Crick to enter palliative care, which she did for a number of days before returning home again.

Philip Nitschke was not terminally ill at the time of her death.

Philip Nitschke said the scar tissue from previous cancer surgery had caused her suffering.

Philip Nitschke made headlines in New Zealand when he announced plans to accompany eight New Zealanders to Mexico where the drug Nembutal, capable of producing a fatal overdose, can be purchased legally.

Philip Nitschke made headlines, even angering some fellow right-to-die advocates, when he presented his plan to launch a "death ship" that would have allowed him to circumvent local laws by euthanising people from around the world in international waters.

In 2009 Philip Nitschke helped to promote Dignified Departure, a 13-hour, pay-television program on doctor-assisted suicide in Hong Kong and mainland China.

In February 2014 Philip Nitschke was approached after a workshop by Nigel Brayley, 45.

Philip Nitschke stated that he does not believe he could have changed Brayley's mind, that Brayley was not his patient, that Brayley was not depressed and did not seek or want Philip Nitschke's advice.

The Medical Board of Australia and Beyondblue said Philip Nitschke had an obligation to refer the man to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Philip Nitschke said the suspension will not affect his work for Exit International and that he had not practised medicine for years.

Philip Nitschke appealed to an MBA tribunal in Darwin to have his July 2014 suspension from practising medicine overturned.

Philip Nitschke then appealed the tribunal's decision to the Darwin Supreme Court.

On 6 July 2015 the Northern Territory supreme court upheld Philip Nitschke's appeal, finding the emergency suspension of his licence by the MBA should not have been upheld by a review tribunal.

Philip Nitschke said the MBA's erroneous interpretation was "ludicrous" and flew in the face of common law.

Philip Nitschke stated that he will remain a doctor and will legitimately use the title "doctor", and will continue to see patients and Exit members in clinics that he runs in Australia and other countries.

On 2 May 2009 Philip Nitschke was detained for nine hours by British Immigration officials at Heathrow Airport after arriving for a visit to the UK to lecture on voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life choices.

Philip Nitschke said it was a matter of free speech and that his detention said something about changes to British society which were "quite troubling".

However, although assisting someone to commit suicide in the UK was illegal, the law did not apply to a person lecturing on the concept of euthanasia, and Philip Nitschke was allowed to enter.

Dame Joan Bakewell, the British government's "Voice of Older People", said that the current British law on assisted suicide was "a mess" and that Philip Nitschke should have been made more welcome in the UK.

On 1 August 2014, after euthanasia advocate Max Bromson, 66, who suffered from terminal bone cancer, ended his life with Nembutal in a Glenelg motel room, surrounded by family members, police carried out a three-hour raid on Exit International's Adelaide premises, interrogating Philip Nitschke and seizing Philip Nitschke's phones, computers and other items.

Philip Nitschke said he felt violated by the "heavy-handed and unnecessary" police actions and confiscations that would cripple Exit International's activities.

Philip Nitschke said police actions were unprecedented and probably in breach of the Bill of Rights, which guaranteed freedom of association.

In July 2009 Philip Nitschke said he no longer believed voluntary euthanasia should only be available to the terminally ill, but that elderly people afraid of getting old and incapacitated should have a choice.

Philip Nitschke expects that a growing number of people importing their own euthanasia drugs "really don't care if the law is changed or not".

In 2010 the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine released a report into Australian deaths caused by the drug Nembutal, which Philip Nitschke recommends as a euthanasia drug.

Philip Nitschke acknowledged that the information about the drug that was provided online could be accessed by people below the age of 50 who were not terminally ill, but argued that the risk was necessary in order to help the elderly and the seriously ill.

Philip Nitschke argues that an individual person has a fundamental right to control their own death just as they have a right to control their own life.

Philip Nitschke believes in having the "Peaceful Pill" available for every adult of sound mind.

In 2024, Philip Nitschke appeared in an Alabama court as an expert witness to oppose the state's plan to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith using a mask-and-gas technique incorporating nitrogen.

Philip Nitschke testified that the mask-and-gas approach had been rejected decades ago because it was unreliable, and that Smith could be "horribly maimed without a complete seal between mask and face" leading to incomplete cerebral hypoxia and a resultant vegetative state.

Philip Nitschke said that nitrogen must be delivered correctly to work as intended.

Philip Nitschke said the Alabama nitrogen hypoxia method was "quick and nasty" and ignored the possibilities of vomiting and air leakage.

Philip Nitschke said the proposals were the "final nail in the coffin for euthanasia advocacy" in Australia, where people are banned from discussing end-of-life issues over the phone, buying books about it or importing printed material on it.

Philip Nitschke said Exit International would investigate if it could set up its own proxy server or VPN tunnel, so its members had a safe way of accessing its information.

On 10 September 2010 Philip Nitschke complained that the Commercials Advice self-regulator of advertising content on Australian commercial television had prevented the television screening of a paid advertisement from Exit International in which an actor depicted a dying man who requested the option of voluntary euthanasia.

Philip Nitschke responded that the acts of Commercials Advice constitute interference with the right to free speech.

In 2010 Philip Nitschke planned to use billboards in Australia to feature the message "85 per cent of Australians support voluntary euthanasia but our government won't listen".

Philip Nitschke was told to provide legal advice outlining how his billboard did not break this law, a request Philip Nitschke described as "ludicrous", pointing out that the billboards urge "political change and in no way could be considered to be in breach of the crimes act".

Philip Nitschke said he had sought a legal opinion from prominent human rights lawyer Greg Barns.

Philip Nitschke created devices to aid people who want euthanasia, including a product called the "exit bag" and the "CoGen" device.

In December 2008 Philip Nitschke released details of a euthanasia machine to the media.

Philip Nitschke developed a process in which patients lose consciousness immediately and die a few minutes later.

In 2009 Philip Nitschke made a barbiturate testing kit available, initially launched in the UK, then Australia.

Philip Nitschke said the kit was made available by Exit International in response to growing demand for something to test the Nembutal obtained from Mexico, often delivered in the post without labels.

Philip Nitschke was detained for an hour for questioning on arrival at Auckland Airport in New Zealand on a trip to hold public meetings and launch the kit.

In October 2009 Philip Nitschke announced his intention to inform people at his workshops where to obtain a long-storage form of sodium pentobarbital that manufacturers say can be stored for up to fifty years without degrading.

Philip Nitschke intends to advise people on how to reconstitute the pill into liquid form for ingestion if and when it ever becomes appropriate.

Philip Nitschke said that he sees it as a way of keeping people accurately informed and allowing them to make viable choices.

In 2012 Philip Nitschke started a beer-brewing company for the purpose of importing nitrogen canisters.

Philip Nitschke stated that the gas cylinders can be used for both brewing and, if required, to end life at a later stage in a "peaceful, reliable [and] totally legal" manner.

Philip Nitschke said, "[nitrogen] was undetectable even by autopsy, which was important to some people".

Philip Nitschke responded that without such information most elderly people who want to end their lives hang themselves, which is "an embarrassment and shame".

In 2017 Philip Nitschke invented the 3D-printed suicide capsule, which he named "the Sarco".

Philip Nitschke began his comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2015 with his show Dicing with Dr Death.

Philip Nitschke performed a newer Australian version of his show, retitled Practising without a License, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2016 and again in Darwin in August 2016.

In 2014 Philip Nitschke featured in the documentary 35 Letters about Australian woman Angelique Flowers.

Philip Nitschke was 30 years old when she died of bowel cancer.

In 2009 Philip Nitschke helped to promote Dignified Departure, a 13-hour, pay-television program on doctor-assisted suicide in Hong Kong and mainland China.