‘I make it look like they died in their sleep’

Jon Ronson The Guardian Monday 12 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/12/mentalhealth.health

Summary

Irish police are seeking the arrest and extradition of the Reverend George Exoo,  “a giggly, gay liberal unitarian preacher, cultured funny, [and]charming.” who is “a leading figure in the right-to-die movement.” Like fellow right-to-die propagandist Dr Philip Nitschke, whose book The Peaceful [Suicide] Pill Handbook was recently classified and cleared by NZ’s gay Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, for sale in NZ bookshops, Exoo has helped over 100 people commit suicide. But, reports Jon Ronson, “most of his [Exoo’s] clients were not terminally ill, just depressed and in need of psychiatric help.”

“I’m a midwife to the dying, for those who want to hasten their deaths,” claims Rev Exoo. He has announced publicly that he intends to commit suicide (see video link above) and so become the first martyr for the right-to-die movement, so that he and his nomosexual partner THomas McGurrin, can avoid extraditon from the US as suspects, in the assisted suicide of Rosemary Toole, who had been suffering depression, prior to seeking help from Rev Exoo. Under Irish law, a person convicted of the crime of assisting a suicide, faces a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

According to reports, Rev Exoo’s devoted followers showed no emotion when he publicly announced his intention to commit suicide (see video). Instead, they were utterly obsessed by a morbid fascination in the method he planned to use to take his own life, quizzing him on this matter. This cold, callous and clinical approach of right-to-death zealots, permeates Dr Nitschke’s pernicious book that documents in excruciating and meticulous detail, many options for committing suicide and assisting others to commit the act.

Chief Censor, Bill Hastings and his deputy, Nicola McCully, a lesbian, who hold the only two statutory positions in the Office of Film and Literature, have seen fit to allow this book that incites criminal activity and promotes a culture of death, into bookshops, for sale, throughout NZ.  Dr Nitchke told the media he was “thrilled” that Mr Hastings had cleared his book for sale in NZ.