Exit Podcast - The Good Death Philip Nitschke

The first execution of a prisoner, Kenny Smith, using nitrogen hypoxia, took place in the US state of Alabama on 25 Jan 2024. A few weeks earlier I had visited Holman prison to inspect the new equipment they planned to use, and met Kenny on death row with his lawyer Robert Grass. I gave evidence at a hearing in Montgomery a week later in an attempt to stop the execution. Kenny died, but accounts of a slow grotesque death were horrible. When I talked with him I should have explained how he could have made his death fast, peaceful and effective.

First Exit Podcast for 2023 featuring Fiona Stewart in conversation with Philip Nitschke. The topic is the coming Canadian trial of Kenneth Law a distributor of the lethal legal salt, sodium nitrite. Described by some as a 'serial killer', but by many members of Exit as a savior who provided them with a reliable means for a peaceful death, the trial of Law will be watched closely around the world by supporters of rational suicide and the right to die.. for further details

When former Dutch Supreme Court Judge, Huib Drion, wrote a short but pointed letter to the editor of the newspaper, NRC, little could he have known what his legacy would be.

Drion argued that all older people should have a right to terminate their lives at a time of their choosing. He argued that this was a separate social need to that of euthanasia for the seriously ill.

Drion bemoaned that older people like himself were ill-equipped to take this step in way that was peaceful and dignified. He noted that while doctors and pharmacists had access to the means, everyone else would be forced to jumping in a canal or in front of train; methods that he said did not bear thinking about.

Fast forward to today and recent weeks have seen the arrest of the chairman of Dutch organisation CLW. Listeners may remember this is the group behind the Middel X powder (covered in the August Podcast); the group that is attempting to force Dutch law to take account of the need of older, rational adults and their right to a self determined death.

This podcast is wide-ranging and both celebrates and comiserates the Drion letter: what does progress look like and are we there yet?

The Azide Wars have come about with the advent in the Netherlands of Middel X as an end of life method. 

As a country where voluntary euthanasia has long been legal, there has been a groundswell of discontentment amongst older people who resent having to ask doctors for help to die.

Addressing this souring mood has been activist group CLW who have strongly advocated the use of Middel X, an available, legal inorganic salt they claim provides individuals with a reliable end of life option.

In opposition has been the Dutch Medical Association and prominent right to die activists such as Dutch psychiatrist Boudewijn Chabot who argue that Middel X is a dangerous substance that does not provide the peaceful and reliable death that CLW claim.

The August 2021 PPeH update focuses on the Azide Wars and presents collected data and eye witness accounts so you can draw your own conclusion.

Read more at www.peacefulpill.com

The May 2021 Exit Podcast (note name change) features an interview with Philip Nitschke as he reflects on the highs / lows of 25+ years of end of life political activism including the effect on his work of his move to the Netherlands, how it feels to be politically persecuted, major turning points in the debate and where the next generation of activists will come from and who they are.

In early April, Dutch activist group, CLW launched legal action against the Dutch state arguing that the prohibition on assisted suicide and assisted suicide drugs should be abolished. These should be abolished because they prevent self-determination at the end of life. If self-determination is a fundamental human right, they argued that a nation State that keeps the right un-exercisable makes the right a false one and the State is acting unlawfully.

The Dutch have taken their lead from recent constitutional court decisions in Germany and Austria which confirm that self-determination is a human right that the government should not interfere in. What is more, self-determination at the end of life exists irrespective of age and health/ illness status. This is to say that all people of sound mind have the right to determine when and how they die; they don't need a doctor to give permission or tell them how.