Australian Border Force has seized and destroyed copies of a book that provides information on euthanasia and assisted suicide to the elderly and the seriously ill.

The Peaceful Pill Handbook, written by euthanasia advocate and former doctor, Philip Nitschke, is published in Holland but copies have been seized on arrival in Australia.

People who have ordered the book receive instead a note from the Border Force which reads: “Customs prohibits importation of documents relating to suicide ... The importation of a device designed or customised to be used by a person to commit suicide is prohibited absolutely.”

Zola Ortenburg, 73, from Victoria, said she was furious to receive the note in her letterbox after ordering the book earlier this year, describing it as “censorship”.

“My reaction was at first, ‘this is a joke’,” she said.

“But then I got very cross as I should be able to read what I want to and make my own choices. My husband and I are in very good health and have no inclination to act on the materials in any way. But I want more information for the future and I should be able to access information about all sides of the argument so I can make up my own mind.”

She added that magazines on display at newsagencies often contained material some would find offensive, but that those people had a choice whether to read it or not. Ortenburg believed Border Force time would be better spent seizing guns and illicit drugs.

Her husband, Tom Ortenburg, 78, added: “If they ban this book then they should ban the Bible as well, because it has a lot of killing in it.

“This is censorship by stealth,” he said.

Border Force has been contacted for comment.

Zola Ortenburg has written to the attorney general, George Brandis, to express her concern at the book being banned. The letter says: “Why should I, as a mature Australian woman, not be allowed to read what I choose?

“Talking about this with my husband he reminded me that Adolf Hitler ordered books should be destroyed in 1933,” the letter states.

“How far away are from this happening in Australia?

“Does this mean that Australian Border Force has an oversupply of staff or perhaps should they be better utilised in stopping the ever increasing importation of drugs and there ingredients not to mention the guns and everything to do with them.”

The Peaceful Pill Handbook was first published in 2006, though it has been updated since then. Nitschke said this was the first time he was aware of the book being seized and prevented from entering the country.

“The vast majority of Peaceful Pill book sales are online. We only keep a print versions because of the large, but decreasing group of elderly who don’t want to use the internet,” Nitschke said.

“These seizures are a new and worrying development and I’m taken aback by yet another attempt by the federal government to interfere with the choices and decisions of elderly Australians. The heavy handed use of censorship to restrict access to the Peaceful Pill Handbook, now the world’s best selling manual on accessing a peaceful death, shows how fragile any notion of free speech is in this country.

“Australia is the only country in the world that is trying to restrict access to this book.”

He said mail directed towards the voluntary euthanasia organisation he founded, Exit International, was also being opened before it reached the Australian office.

“Meanwhile raids continue against Exit members who have imported drugs [to assist in suicide]; three in Australia, and the latest in the US,” he said. “Always reference is made to ‘acting on information provided by Interpol’.”

However, Judi Taylor, a Victorian woman whose 26-year-old son Lucas took his own life in 2012, said the book should be stopped from coming into Australia.

Lucas was involved in lengthy discussions in the Peaceful Pill online forum and died in Germany after taking the powerful barbiturate Nembutal, which is lethal in large doses. Instructions on its use are provided in the book and online forums explain how to obtain the drug.



She believes Lucas would not have taken his own life had he not been able to access the book and the forum.

“In the five months he spent on the forum they praised him every step of the way, and the book laid it all out for him. This is not an academic debate. My son carried this out.

“I’m shocked that anyone could just shrug this book off. It’s not just elderly that have access to this book. It’s vulnerable people. Parts of the book detail which methods are the most ‘peaceful’ and it’s all mapped out for them.

“There is no screening as to who can access this book. And it encourages suicide. It’s very insidious.”

Nitschke notoriously burned his medical registration and ended his career as a doctor in a public act of defiance against the Medical Board of Australia last year so that he would be able to continue running workshops for the over-50s about how to die peacefully and promote voluntary euthanasia.

The board had told Nitschke that if he continued to advocate for assisted suicide, he would be deregistered as a medical practitioner. Accepting those conditions and continuing to work as a doctor would have made his position as head of Exit International untenable, prompting him to burn his registration.

The board’s decision followed a long-running investigation into Nitschke’s conduct as a doctor and his involvement in the suicide of a non-terminally ill man, Nigel Brayley, who ended his life at the age of 45 after reading the Peaceful Pill Handbook.

The Australian mental health commissioner and psychiatrist, Ian Hickie, said Nitschke’s view that anyone should be able to make a rational decision to end their own life regardless of their age or health status was a dangerous one. He believes Nitshcke has taken the voluntary euthanasia debate too far.

“But at the end of the day, I doubt the banning of books achieves much,” he said.

“There are legitimate issues about the end of life and we do need to have a discussion about these issues for those in intractable pain and with a severely impaired quality life and terminal conditions.

“But the debate in Australia has been complicated by Nitschke’s behaviour, and his comments that it’s possible for most people to be able to make a decision to end their own life, and those comments are not helpful ones.”

Do you know more? melissa.davey@theguardian.com