Media Release 13 June 2008
The Society is confident that The Peaceful Pill Handbook (New Revised International Edition) co-authored by Dr Phillip Nitschke (dubbed ‘Dr Death’ by the media) will be banned by early next week by the President of the Film and Literature Board of Review, Ms Claudia Elliott, in response to its application for an interim restriction order. The deadline for submissions from interested parties in respect to the Society’s application passed today Friday 13 June at 12.00 pm. (See below for Society’s latest submission).
On 5 June 2008 the Society made an application to the President for an Order under s. 49 of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”) in respect of the book that was classified R18 by the Chief Censor’s Office on 8 May 2008 (OFLC No. 800267). An earlier version of the book was banned by the Chief Censor’s Office in June 2007.
The Society was granted leave by the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Mr Brendan Boyle on 29 May 2008 to make an application to the Board for a review of the revised book’s classification. It applied for leave on the 11 May 2008.
The Society contends that with the correct application of the Act the revised book should be banned in view of its promotion and encouragement of criminal activity – the aiding and abetting of suicide etc. – and its promotion of a culture of death. It argues that it is in the public interest for a temporary ban to be imposed by the President
until the nine-member Board can complete its review of the Chief Censor’s Office classification.
For More See.
https://www.spcs.org.nz/2008/review-sought-by-society-over-release-of-pro-euthanasia-book/
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The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.
P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville
Submission to President of Film & Literature Board of Review, Ms Claudia Elliott, supporting Society’s application for interim restriction order
13 June 2008
Why it is in the public interest to grant an Interim Restriction Order against The Peaceful Pill Handbook (New Revised International Edition).
The Society, having sought legal advice on the matter, contends that its application for an interim restriction order dated 5 June 2008 must be dealt with by the President separately from any other such application and be ruled on before any decision is issued with respect to on any other application(s) for an order. The Society reserves the right under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), to appeal to the High Court on any question(s) of law, should it be dissatisfied with the decision issued by the president. It intends to strongly contest any refusal to grant an interim restriction order, given the huge risk the release of this book poses to the public good and the strength of its prima facie case, already documented in its successful application for leave to the Secretary, that the book should not be classified R18, but rather should be classified “objectionable”.
The Suicide-Murder of Graeme Wylie and the link to Exit’s founder Dr Nitschke
In a letter dated 11 March 2007, the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, was informed that Dr Nitschke had recently been questioned by New South Wales Police following the murder of a former Quantas pilot and advanced Alzheimer sufferer, Graeme William Wylie, 71, who was found dead in his Cameray home, on Sydney’s North Shore on 22 March 2006. A Police toxology report found that he had died from an overdose of barbiturate Nembutal, which is not available in Australia. Police charged his de facto wife, Shirley Justins, with murder and family friend Ms Caren Jenning as an accessory before the fact – for assisting his suicide murder.
Jenning joined pro-euthanasia group Exit International in 2003, founded by Dr Nitschke, and admitted that she had deliberately obtained the illegal drug while on a short visit to Mexico, for the purpose of assisting in the suicide-murder. She had learned about Nembutal and how to import it into Australia from America by avoiding detection by customs at the borders, at workshops run in Sydney’s north by the group’s founder, Dr Philip Nitschke. These same instructions on how to commit a crime are mentioned in the edition of Dr Nischke’s Peaceful Pill Handbook that was banned by Mr Hasting’s Office in 2007. The Chief Censor’s Office in New Zealand classified the book as “objectionable”, in part because “in offering instruction how to break the law [assist suicide-murder] and conceal the fact… [it] encourages[s] criminal activity … in terms of s3(3)(d)” of the Act.
“Specifically, these parts of the book instruct in how to smuggle Nembutal into the country without detection, how to manufacture pentobarbital … and how to conceal one’s involvement with the commission of a suicide, exposing one to prosecution under ss113, 116 and 179 of the Crimes Act 1961. The delivery of most of the information by means of first-person testimonials, and the tone of advocacy throughout the publication, contribute to the promotion and encouragement of the criminal activities the book describes in such detail.” (OFLC decision No. 70240 dated 7 June 2007).
The Graham Wylie murder trial (see references in Appendix).
On June 4 2008 The Supreme Court in Sydney heard evidence in the trial of Shirley Justins and Caren Jenning for the murder of Graham Wylie.
The defendants have admitted the following facts:
- Graham Wylie had advanced dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease
- His application to Dignitas – a Swiss assisted suicide group – for “an accompanied suicide” was rejected on the grounds that the evidence raised doubt about his competence to consent.
- Caren Jennings obtained Nembutal from Mexico1 following instructions given by Exit International at workshops she attended.
- The Nembutal was given by Jennings to Justins who made it available to Graham Wylie to ingest.
- Jennings and Justins disposed of the glass and bottle which had held the Nembutal.
- Jennings and Justins took other actions to try to prevent an autopsy or a police investigation.
Regardless of the outcome of the case it is now clear that Nembutal, obtained following Nitschke’s precise “how-to-get” it instructions, has been used in either a murder or an assisted suicide. (Jennings advanced a guilty plea for assisting suicide but the prosecutor rejected the plea to pursue the murder charge).
The Effect of Redactions in the Revised Book
Mr Hayden Swan, Senior Associate of Kensington Swan, the lawyer acting for the importer, Dr Nitschke, wrote in his submission to the Classification Office dated 10 March 2008:
Clearly the redactions have the effect of reducing, rather than emphasising the aspects of the book which were earlier classified objectionable. It is now clear that the book does not fall within the definition of objectionable under section 3(1), nor can it be deemed to be objectionable under section 3(2) of the Act. [Par. 28. Emphasis in italics added].
Here is a clear admission that all that Dr Nitschke has done is reduce some of the more problematic content that he felt the Chief Censor’s Office had highlighted in its 2007 decision that classified the book “objectionable”. The Society readily concedes that redactions have been made to the content of the banned book. However, these have by no means gone far enough. When matters listed in S3(4) of the Act are carefully considered – such as overall impact and dominant effect of the publication as a whole – together with s(3)(3) matters already highlighted by the Society, the case against the revised book remain.
The New Revised International Edition of The Peaceful Pill Handbook still has the directions and instructions for obtaining Nembutal in Tijuana, Mexico, including photos of the bottles with the Spanish labels.
In his letter to the Classification Office dated 10 March 2008, submitted on behalf of the book’s importer, Hayden Wilson, listed all the sections of the banned book that had been redacted in the revised edition (see pp. 1-2, points 8a-l). Based on these detailed disclosures it is apparent, despite Mr Wilson’s claims to the contrary, that some of the material noted above relating to the promotion of criminal activity, has not been fully redacted. A careful examination of the book will confirm this.
Dr Nischke has no qualms about publicly promoting or encouraging criminal activity on his organisation’s website, including the “how-to-get” instructions relating to Nembutal (see PDF files linked to). His Exit seminars promote such activities.
See: International interest in Mexican “Peaceful Pill” 26 May 2008 http://www.exitinternational.net/
The case for the revised book being classified “objectionable” still holds. It does still “instruct in the crime” of importing an illegal substance by ‘explaining’ in a semi-instructional manner/observational narrator style, the first steps of that process – where and how to obtain such a substance notwithstanding that the specifics of advice about how to bring the substance undetected through customs is now blacked out. All headings from the banned book relating to the concealment of crimes are retained in the revised book, creating an overall impact that ‘gives the fingers to’ (as one commentator said) the serious concerns raised by the Chief Censor Bill Hastings that led to he banning of the book in 2007.
If the revised book doesn’t instruct it most certainly promotes assisted suicide and a culture of death. As the classification decision remarks on the revised book – it builds towards promoting Nembutal as the deadly substance of choice. The Wylie trial suggests that the newly revised book – used as an instructional manual in Exit International workshops or as a personal instructional manual – is just as useful for instructing/promoting murder as for suicide.
Dr ‘Death’ as the media refer to Dr Nitschke, has advertised on the Exit International website that he will be holding an Exit seminar on suicide methods at the Kingsgate Hotel, Dunedin City, on 6 July 2008.
See http://www.exitinternational.net/index.php?page=Workshops
Up to the point at which he first learnt that the Society had sought a review of the classification of his revised Peaceful Pill book, he had boasted that his book would be available in bookshops throughout New Zealand at the end of May 2008 and would be available at the seminar. He has now done a U-turn and informed bookshops that it will not be available until sometime shortly after the seminar.
The public interest would be best served by not allowing the circulation/distribution of the revised edition of the book that continues to promotes and encourage criminal activity and fuels a culture of death in this country.
The Chief Censor’s Office stated in its classification decision No. 800267 on the revised book, dated 8 May 2008
Despite the author’s “word of caution” about the book not being intended for “those who are young and irrational or for people who are suffering from psychiatric illness or depression”, there remains a risk of such people reading and being influenced by the contents of the book in making decisions about ending what they may perceive to be legitimate and unendurable suffering. The book’s clinical accounting of meticulously planned suicides by various methods, its sometimes self-congratulatory do-it-yourself ethos and its many photographs and diagrams could appeal to young readers, particularly young teenage men. The notoriety of the book’s principal author and the taboo surrounding the issue of suicide will only add to the book’s appeal for just the readers the author claims it is not intended for. The book may have the effect of making self-inflicted death appear acceptable and even desirable as a means to solve life’s problems for its readers, given its approving and encouraging tone with respect to suicide. The rating of various methods may also encourage such readers to feel that their death can be achieved without undue suffering to themselves, the prospect of which may previously have acted as a deterrent.
This passage provides an obvious basis for a public interest argument in favour of an interim restriction order being granted: the passage deals with categories of people other than those under 18:, including those suffering from psychiatric illnesses or depression. It strongly suggests that some such persons may be more likely to commit suicide and/or assist others to commit suicide if they read this book. It IS in the public interest to NOT allow this book to be distributed in New Zealand until such time as the nine-member Review Board can carefully consider the proper classification for the book and reach a considered opinion.
The category of ADULT “people who are suffering from psychiatric illness or depression” and who remains a risk from “reading and being influenced by the contents of the book” as noted by the OFLC, include those suffering from schizophrenia and related disorders (schizophreniform, delusional, schizoaffective disorders)2, bipolar affective disorders3 and major depression4. Literally tens of thousands of New Zealanders of all ages fit into one or more of these categories. The most vulnerable categories include young men aged 17-24, Maori and our prison population.
It has been widely reported that Exit International has helped over 250 people from Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand get pentobarbital in Mexico over the past few years. And, it boasts that interest is growing in New Zealand because of the forthcoming release of the revised Peaceful Pill Handbook into NZ bookshops.
Euthanasia tourists snap up pet shop drug in Mexico
Reuters | Thursday, 05 June 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4573461a12.html
Dr Phillip Nitschke’s book The Peaceful Pill is being purchased on line and it has become an instrument that aids and abets suicide, promotes a sick new industry “suicide tourism” and creates fear among vulnerable groups who care for elderly loved ones who access this DIY suicide content.
Reuters
DEATH TRIP: Right to die activists are guiding elderly tourists to Mexican pet shops where they can buy over-the-counter sedatives.
As the Reuters report states:
Elderly foreign tourists are tapping Mexican pet shops for a drug used by veterinarians to put cats and dogs to sleep that has become the sedative of choice for euthanasia campaigners.
Tourists from as far as Australia have travelled to Mexico to buy liquid pentobarbital, which causes a painless death in humans in less than an hour, right-to-die advocates say.
Clutching photos of the bottled drug to overcome a lack of Spanish, they have maps sketched by euthanasia activists to locate back-street pet shops and veterinary supply stores near the US border. There they can buy a bottle for $35 to $50, enough for one suicide, no questions asked.
“We have a moral right to a peaceful death. I don’t want to die with a total loss of dignity, incontinent, barely able to see and stand up, suffering as my mother did,” said Bron Norman, a healthy 65-year-old Australian woman who spent $2,860 to fly to Mexico in March to buy pentobarbital.
Used legally across the world to anesthetise and euthanise farm animals and pets, pentobarbital, sometimes known by the trade name Nembutal, is tightly restricted to veterinarians.
But lax regulation in Mexico means it can easily be bought.
Euthanasia campaigners call it “the Mexico option” and say they are willing to travel so far because pentobarbital is one of the few drugs that produces a reliable and tranquil death by sending a person to sleep before shutting down breathing.
“There are few countries in the world where the drug is as readily available as in Mexico,” said Australian doctor Philip Nitschke, who set up pro-euthanasia group Exit International.
Exit International has helped 250 people from Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand get pentobarbital in Mexico over the past few years. And, it says, interest is growing.
“You do this trip because you want an insurance policy,” said Michael Irwin, a British euthanasia campaigner and former United Nations medical director who plans to take a dozen Britons to Mexico this year to buy the drug, helped by Exit.
“You make (the trip) in good health so that if you become terminally ill this can guarantee you a quicker exit.”
Foreign buyers usually fly to US border cities and cross over to Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo or Ciudad Juarez, the group says.
A Reuters reporter buying a bottle in Nuevo Laredo was given a range of brands to choose from.
RIGHT TO DIE?
Aging populations in rich nations have sparked a global debate over the legality of euthanasia and the right of terminally ill people to bring forward their own deaths.
Euthanasia is legal only in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the US state of Oregon and doctors in those countries can use pentobarbital to end human lives.
Many Christians around the world oppose so-called mercy killings, saying they go against God’s will.
But the case of Chantal Sebire, a French woman with an uncurable face-distorting tumour, rekindled the pro-euthanasia camp. Sebire was found dead of an overdose in March days after a court rejected her bid for assisted suicide.
In devoutly Catholic Mexico, most terminally ill entrust themselves to family or doctors rather than seek euthanasia.
A Mexican health ministry spokesman said it was working with the agriculture ministry to step up control of veterinary medicines, but declined to give details.
Australian interest in the “Mexico option” grew after the government overruled a state-level euthanasia law in 1997.
The Australian government banned Nitschke’s book, “The Peaceful Pill Handbook,” which gives tips on everything from carbon monoxide to buying pentobarbital in Mexico.
US anti-euthanasia groups also deplore such activism. In the late 1990s, American doctor Jack Kevorkian – dubbed Dr Death – was convicted of second-degree murder and jailed after he helped at least 130 people end their lives.
“We shouldn’t treat people as animals are treated. Every day of life is to be valued as a gift,” said Lori Kehoe of the US-based National Right to Life movement. “Economics are driving the suicide debate. It is cheaper to get rid of someone than to treat them well until the day they die.”
Dr Nitschke caused controversy in New Zealand as the Wikipedia online encyclopedia reports, when he announced plans to accompany eight New Zealanders to Mexico and help them purchase the potentially life-ending drug Nembutal
See: NZ offered Mexican suicide drug trips February 6, 2007 – 6:14AM
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/NZ-offered-Mexican-suicide-drug-trips/2007/02/06/1170524056505.html
Dr Nitschke has provided advice to others who have ended their lives, mostly notably Nancy Crick, aged 69. On May 22, 2002, Crick, with over a dozen friends and family (but not Nitschke) present, took a lethal dose of barbiturates and went quickly to sleep and died within 20 minutes. Nitschke had suggested Nancy Crick was suffering from a recurrence of her bowel cancer. Most of his criticism for this case came after it was revealed that Nancy Crick was not terminally ill at all.
Dr Nitschke has provided advice about suicide methods to hundreds of vulnerable people, many of whom have ended their lives. Perhaps most notable is Nancy Crick, aged 69. On May 22, 2002, Crick, with over a dozen friends and family (but not Nitschke) present, took a lethal dose of barbiturates and went quickly to sleep and died within 20 minutes. Nitschke had suggested Nancy Crick was suffering from a recurrence of her bowel cancer. Most of his criticism for this case came after it was revealed that Nancy Crick was not terminally ill at all.5
It is not surprising that in 2006 the NZ Medical Council made a complaint to the Ministry of Health about the activities in New Zealand and sought to have him banned from giving medical advice to New Zealanders. Dr Nitschke is registered as a medical doctor in Australia but he has not applied for professional registration in New Zealand. The Medical Council of New Zealand considered that Dr Nitschke was practising medicine when he led workshops on palliative care and had been providing information to New Zealanders about methods of ending one’s life. The relevant statutory provision is section 7 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. Section 7(2) of the HPCAA provides that an unqualified person must not claim to be qualified to practise as a health practitioner.6 He is not registered here as a doctor and yet foists his pernicious ‘medical’ advice on suicide methods onto vulnerable elderly people and others. He has no interest whatsoever in seeking improvements to palliative care and has a disdainful attitude towards the compasionate work of caregivers in the hospice movement. His pernicious writings and propaganda breeds a culture of death.
Appendix
References to the Graham Wylie murder trial.
Murder accused: Mexico drug trip for me by Amy Coopes
June 04, 2008 05:48pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23810107-29277,00.html
Mercy wife ‘knew of mental impairment’ June 4, 2008 – 12:33PM
http://news.theage.com.au/national/mercy-wife-knew-of-mental-impairment-20080604-2lkl.html
Mercy killing accused was prepared to lie Geesche Jacobsen The Sydney Morning Herald. June 5, 2008
Woman denies manipulating euthanised partnerPosted Wed Jun 4, 2008 3:07pm AEST
Updated Wed Jun 4, 2008 4:40pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/04/2265013.htm
Mercy kill wife admits lies in court By Amy Coopes
ABC News June 03, 2008 05:19pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23804632-29277,00.html
Mercy murder-accused admits lies June 5, 2008- 5:23 PM
http://news.theage.com.au/national/mercy-murderaccused-admits-lies-20080605-2m7m.html
The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Incorporated
A charitable entity registered with the Charities Commission
P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville
1 (See: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKN0329945820080603 for a useful article on the “Mexico option” – a phrase used by Caren Jennings in her evidence in the Wylie trial.)
2 Schizophrenia, schizo affective disorder, schizophreniform disorder and delusional disorder are all major psychotic disorders which share many clinical features in common and share genetic, causative and treatment implications. They differ in terms of their time course (schizophreniform disorder is the same as schizophrenia except that it is of shorter duration) or clinical features (schizoaffective disorder differs from schizophrenia only in having mood disorder components as well psychotic features, and delusional disorder has many similar features to schizophrenia except that the presentation is primarily of delusional beliefs). These are major mental disorders that cause severe disruption to an inmate’s thought process. They are often lifelong illnesses requiring long term psychiatric treatment.
3 These are major mental illnesses where the person suffers extreme mood swings from mania (high energy, no sleep, expansive ideas etc) to depression. These mood swings cause severe disruption to the person’s functioning and require ongoing psychiatric treatment. This is usually a life-long illness.
4 This is a major mental illness where persons experience a profound drop in mood, energy and initiative, often becoming so distressed as to consider or attempt suicide. It is a treatable disorder but episodes of depression are often recurrent throughout life. The potentially serious consequences of untreated depression and the success of treatment make this an important mental illness to identify.
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Nitschke
6 Ministry of Health Media Release, 2 June 2006. http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/4814?Open
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