Apparently “helping” people kill themselves with a fatal dose of drugs is not enough for some assisted suicide proponents, which is why Philip Nitschke has created a device that will “gas” a person to death in a matter of seconds.
The Daily Record reports that Nitschke, also know as Dr. Death, combined carbon monoxide and nitrogen gases to create a deadly potion that’s delivered through nasal prongs. He’s also hosting a show to demonstrate how the device works at the popular Edinburgh Fringe art festival in Scotland.
Nitschke explained, “When the machine is used to end a person’s life, it uses nine per cent carbon monoxide with 91 per cent nitrogen. Having nasal prongs or a face mask delivering 100 per cent nitrogen, as will happen in the show, will have no effect on a person. But the audience will see a cardiac trace of the individual’s heart. I don’t doubt that there will be some fluctuation in that trace because it’s quite an emotive experience. Even just feeling the flow of gas into a person’s nose.”
Nitschke calls his device, “Destiny” and says it allows patients to take their own lives without assistance. He created the machine so residents in the United Kingdom could get around the assisted suicide law. He said, “Suicide is not a crime in the UK, and assistance is not required to use Destiny, which is perfectly legal. The gas that provides the peaceful death is not restricted.”
He added, “The machine that Destiny was based on is my original Deliverance machine. It was used by a number of people and is now in the British Science Museum in London. People used it. It’s a clear example of a model that provided for those who were desperate for peaceful death to get exactly what they want. People will feel in some ways, I hope at least, comforted with the knowledge that these sorts of developments are coming online.”
As LifeNews previously reported, Dr. Nitschke was suspended from practicing medicine after the Australian Medical Board said he made clear errors in law. In 2014, the doctor supported a man’s decision to commit suicide even though he wasn’t terminally ill and had obtained Nembutal illegally.
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Dr. Nitschke actions clearly violated the 2009 Suicide Act, which states that ‘an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or an attempted suicide of another person is illegal, whether or not a suicide, or an attempt at suicide, occurs’. However, earlier this month Australia lifted the doctor’s suspension on his medical license because a judge believed the Medical Board hadn’t supplied enough evidence to support his immediate suspension.
A spokesman from the anti-euthanasia group, Care Not Killing, commented on Dr. Nitschke’s new machine and called on police to monitor his show. Goron Macdonald said, “During the debate on the Assisted Suicide Bill Scotland, the Lord Advocate made it clear it is a criminal offence in this country to assist people to commit suicide. I would say that the police should go along and hear what he is saying.”
He concluded, “People with mental illness or those who are depressed – somebody could have some nefarious reason for going along and they might be dangerous to other people and not just to themselves.”
