Dr Death on recruiting mission

Dr Nitschke met about 10 people in Parnell yesterday to discuss his proposed workshop and his special potion. Picture / Dean Purcell

Australia's "Dr Death" yesterday started recruiting the first of four New Zealand voluntary euthanasia advocates who will next year learn how to make a life-ending potion.

But the one Auckland man who would most like to attend the potion workshop, Voluntary Euthanasia Society spokesman Jack Jones, said he would probably not attend for fear of alerting authorities and ruining it for others.

The workshop is to be held in Australia in May or June by Dr Philip Nitschke, the man dubbed Dr Death for his pro-euthanasia stance.

In Auckland yesterday he met about 10 people, including a 90-year-old man and a disabled woman, to discuss his workshop.

Speaking with the Herald before the closed-door meeting, Dr Nitschke said he would talk to the group about euthanasia, where the law stood, what would happen at his workshops and the risks of getting the potion back into New Zealand.

"It's important that I get to talk to everyone who is interested in participating in these [workshops] so they know exactly what they are getting themselves into."

Dr Nitschke said he would show 30 mostly healthy people, including four New Zealanders, how to create a "peaceful pill" which would allow them to end their lives - when they were ready.

The pill - actually a brownish barbiturate-based potion - is strong tasting and can kill within an hour, or minutes if taken with alcohol.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr said he was concerned to hear Dr Nitschke was promoting something which sounded like Nembutal, a popular euthanasia drug which cannot be legally prescribed by doctors.

However, voluntary euthanasia campaigner Jack Jones, who helped Dr Nitschke bring a plastic "suicide bag" into New Zealand last year, said the pill was a variation on Nembutal.

He said it gave the elderly and suffering a more humane way to die, rather than "jumping off a bridge of slitting their throats".

Mr Jones said he would not attend the workshop in case his trip to Australia alerted authorities to the exact time and possibly the location of the weekend "rural retreat".

Dr Nitschke, who founded the voluntary euthanasia lobby group Exit Australia, said he hoped to hold a similar workshop in New Zealand if the Australian one went well.

He is a strong supporter of New Plymouth woman Lesley Martin, who was this week released from prison halfway through a jail term for trying to murder her ill mother.

 

PEACEFUL POTION

* Would allow people to end their lives when they were ready.

* It is a brownish barbiturate-based potion, strong tasting, and can kill within an hour, or in minutes if taken with alcohol.