Terminally ill invite Dr Death to homes

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

The Australian euthanasia campaigner known as Dr Death plans to visit three terminally ill North Islanders while in the country next week.

Dr Philip Nitschke is holding a workshop in Auckland on Thursday and one in Wellington the following Monday.

His lectures will discuss the ethics, legalities and pharmaceuticals involved in euthanasia, but to attend people must sign a disclaimer that they are not contemplating suicide.

Euthanasia is illegal in New Zealand but Dr Nitschke says his workshops, which cater for around 15 people at a time, do not equate to assisting suicide.

But yesterday he told the Herald that he also hoped to visit three people who had contacted him looking for one-on-one "clinics."

The three people were all terminally ill but he would not say where in the North Island they lived.

Dr Nitschke can have medical consultations with patients only if he is registered with the New Zealand Medical Council.

The controversial Dr Death is Australia's leading euthanasia advocate. He assisted the suicides of four people in the Northern Territory after landmark legislation made it legal.

But that law was later overturned by the federal Government, and Dr Nitschke has since operated advisory workshops around Australia.

The NZ Medical Council confirmed that it has had correspondence with Dr Nitschke and advised that he would be best to apply for temporary registration.

The council has yet to receive a formal application but its rules say any foreign doctor wishingto register to practise in New Zealand must communicate effectively in English, have the appropriate skill and knowledge to practise medicine and be of good character and health.

The council can decline registration on the grounds of a criminal conviction, mental or physical illness, or a past or present disciplinary action.

Dr Nitschke came to New Zealand last year and spoke about euthanasia to hundreds of people at public meetings.

His Auckland workshop will be held at the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists building in Grafton.

The association has awarded Dr Nitschke the annual Charles Southwell Award, which is presented each year to "a person or body who epitomises the values of the enlightenment."

President Ngaire McCarthy said Dr Nitschke had been selected in recognition of his courageous advocacy of the right to choose death with dignity.

The award is named after the journalist Charles Southwell, a pioneer New Zealand free thinker.

Past winners of the awards have been Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand; Herald journalist Brian Rudman and Dr Zoe During.