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Dr. Philip Nitschke |
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Australia Censors
Euthanasia Book
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Australian government banned a how-to euthanasia book, the Australian Broadcast
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Corporation reported Sunday (February 25, 2007). The book, The Peaceful Pill Handbook, was written by Dr. Philip Nitschke and Dr. Fiona Stewart.
Australia’s Classification Review Board banned the
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book, saying it instructs people how to make illegal barbiturates. Nitschke blasted the censorship and other efforts by the Australian government to prohibit people from helping those who wish to end their lives.
“Ten years ago the Australian government took away the world’s first Voluntary Euthanasia law. Last year they banned Australians from using the telephone, fax, email and Internet to seek information about end of life issues. Now they have taken to banning and burning books,” Nitschke said in a press release posted on his group’s web site, www.exitinternational.net.
ABC of Australia quoted Nitschke as saying the government caved into political and religious pressure in banning his book.
However, Right to Life Australia President Margaret Tighe said religious beliefs did not influence the Australian government.
“It’s got nothing to do with religion,” ABC Australia quoted Tighe as saying. “What it’s got everything to do with is public policy, which says the lives of everybody in the community are of value and those who are at risk, who are very vulnerable, who are very depressed, who are very sick, we have to do our best to help those not give them ways and means of killing themselves.”
