The Wire

The recent deaths of the Pope and Terri Sciavo have firmly focused the international media’s attention on the debate surrounding the right to artificially prolong or end a life and voluntary euthanasia. Dr. Philip Nitschke is one of Australia’s most active – and high profile – campaigners for voluntary euthanasia. He is also the director of Exit Australia, which he established in 1997 in response to the overturning of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. And this week, he launched his book – entitled “Killing Me Softly – Voluntary Euthanasia & the Road to the Peaceful Pill” – with his co-author and colleague, Dr Fiona Stewart. The book voices their concerns about the medical profession’s ‘ownership’ of death, and the existing laws restricting people’s end-of-life choices. They offer a future where a ‘Peaceful Pill’ could revolutionise euthanasia just as the contraceptive pill transformed birth control a generation ago. The Wire’s Anja Kueppers was at the launch in Sydney, to hear their story.