In the light of the release of new coroners’ figures on suicide rates, the Society is slamming a unanimous decision by the 8-member Film and Literature Board of Review to support the public availability of a sick book that provides step-by-step methods of how to commit suicide and assist others to do so. The book – The Peaceful Pill Handbook – now classified R18 by the Board, is authored by an elderly Australian zealot, obsessed with seeking notoriety for himself – via his his culture of death propaganda message and his exploitation of weak and vulnerable people who he convinces to fly to Mexico to obtain an illegal suicide drug he promotes in his book and at his fee-paying seminars.
The Dominion Post (25-26/10/08) reports:
“More people [in New Zealand] took their own lives than died in road crashes in the past year, new coroners’ figures show. In the year to the end of June, 511 suicides were reported to coroners – 1.4 self-inflicted deaths a day…. Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean said … Raw data about suicides was ‘rather shocking’… [As a comparison] There were 422 road deaths last year.” (See link to full report below).
The Society wants New Zealanders to know the names of the Board members who, by their decision, have released a publication into circulation that advocates for and promotes suicide. The members involved in the decision were: Claudia Elliott (President), Dr Jo Baddeley (Deputy President), Judy Callingham, Judith Fyfe, Dr Ian Lambie, Mark Andersen, Andrea Haines, and Ani Waaka (All were recommended for appointment by the Labour-led government Minister of Internal Affairs). The Board upheld the R18 classification issued earlier by the Chief Censor’s Office.
Reference:
Dominion Post 25-26 October 2008
Suicide toll surpasses road deaths
by Lane Nichols
SLAMMING OF PRO-SUICIDE BOOK SLAMMED BY CONSTANTNEOPHYTE
Surely not a bit of bias in that head line there? I’d hardly call it “slammed”, more like “whinged about”.
Gee, that’s funny coming from the people who have supported NZ First MP Peter Brown’s “Death With Dignity Bill”, or is that only because you don’t want to lose one of your pro-censorship supporters.
The book’s already been censored anyhow, and it will be in plastic wrap with an R18. Where’s the problem?
Ash you are ill-informed. SPCS never supported Peter Brown’s failed bill or its forerunner – the failed pro-euthanasia bill championed by former MP Michael Laws. The Society’s opposition to euthanasia is well-known and is consistent with the objectives of its constitution.
The Chief Censor’s Office only required an R18 label on the plastic shrink packaging cover to “The Peaceful Pill Handbook” (New International Revised Edition), not on the book cover itself. The Board appears to have recognised this as a serious shortcoming in the Office’s decision, as pointed out by the Society. Consequently the Board issued a classification decision that requires the publisher/distributors to remove all shrink covers from all existing books and affix the R18 sticker to the actual book cover itself (prior to sealing the publication in shrink wrap for sale).
The Board understood our concerns that once the plastic wrap is ripped off and discarded by the person who first accessed the book, there would have been no warning to other readers of the restricted nature its contents. It would be injurious to the public good for such a book – lacking a R18 label – to be accessd by anyone under the age of 18 years
“It would be injurious to the public good for such a book – lacking a R18 label – to be accessd by anyone under the age of 18 years”
Anyone who kills themselves based on the contents of a book is probably doing the world a favour.