A euthanasia advocate with a sordid reputation said his group plans to use a drone to deliver illegal euthanasia drugs to a nursing home patient in Australia.
The Age reports Exit International director Philip Nitschke said a fellow euthanasia advocate from Melbourne recently had a “cardiac incident” and their health has gone downhill. The person currently lives in a nursing home. Nitschke said the person kept the drug Nembutal, used for euthanasia, at their home, but they cannot access it at the nursing home. Euthanasia is illegal in Australia.
His group hopes to use a drone to fly the deadly drug to the patient in the nursing home, according to the report. However, the euthanasia activists are running into problems.
Here’s more from the report:
He said that requests for someone to collect the drugs from the person’s home and to deliver them to the nursing home had been unsuccessful – because of fears of legal consequence. The option of drone delivery had then been raised, Mr Nitschke said.
Mr Nitschke conceded this did not solve the question about assisting in suicide. “The interest is to make a point, or a gesture,” he said.
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He said the person had suffered “a quite sudden cardiac incident and then much to their surprise there was a situation where they went downhill. They didn’t even have the chance to return to their home. They do not have any family.”
Margaret Tighe, the president of Right to Life Australia, said that the proposal made Mr Nitschke an embarrassment to the pro-euthanasia movement.
“What a bizarre idea, and what a dangerous and deadly idea,” she said. “To a nursing home of all places. What will he think of next?”
Nitschke made the announcement in Amsterdam, though he is from Australia. Often referred to as “Doctor Death,” he lost his registration to practice medicine in Australia after a court ruled that he was a serious risk to the public, according to the news outlet.
Paul Russell, director of HOPE: Preventing Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide in Australia, previously wrote for LifeNews:
Nitschke was suspended from medical practice in July 2014 after an ABC Western Australia TV interview regarding the death of Perth man Nigel Brayley drew the ire of suicide prevention organisations. The medical board said it was necessary to suspend Nitschke immediately over the need to “protect public health or safety.” Nitschke appealed the suspension on a number of grounds; most notably that he had no professional relationship and therefore no duty of care as a doctor towards Nigel Brayley’s welfare in regards to his decision to commit suicide.
“The medical board are implicitly stating that suicide advocacy is not an appropriate pursuit for a doctor. If not for a doctor, then we say: not for anyone.” Russell said in late 2015, adding a call for further investigations. “This murky world of suicide advocacy needs to be put to a stop for the sake of vulnerable people of all ages.”
The legal action has not stopped Nitschke. In 2015, he created a new device to “gas” a person to death in a matter of seconds. He said he combined carbon monoxide and nitrogen gases to create a deadly potion that’s delivered through nasal prongs. He also planned to host a show to demonstrate how the device works at the popular Edinburgh Fringe art festival in Scotland.
Nitschke called his device “Destiny” and said 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 prohibition.
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.”
Nitschke previously told the NT News in Switzerland that assisted suicide should be a “fundamental right” for everyone, not just those who are sick.
