Prisoners with no prospect of release should be given option of euthanasia, Philip Nitschke says

Updated

Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke has called for Australian prisoners jailed with no prospect of release to be given the option of euthanasia.

The calls came after a court in Belgium granted killer Frank van den Bleeken the right to die with the help of prison doctors.

Van den Bleeken was first imprisoned at 21 for sexual offences. He was released and later raped and killed a 19-year-old.

Released again seven years later, he attacked three people within weeks, including an 11-year-old girl.

He was then locked up indefinitely for 23 hours of every day in a tiny prison cell.

Van den Bleeken has now been allowed to die at the hands of prison doctors rather than face what he has described as the unbearable psychological suffering of life in jail.

The move, which has paved the way for at least 15 similar requests from other inmates, has been applauded by Dr Nitschke.

"When I first heard that the prisoner was going to be allowed to have his request to have a peaceful death respected, I was very pleased in the sense that it was something that I've believed for some time – that a person who is incarcerated for an indefinite period and that's certainly his case [should be able to have the option of euthanasia]," he told AM.

Dr Nitschke said a similar option should be available to those jailed indefinitely in this country.

"It looks to me like the state is not only prepared to incarcerate people forever in certain circumstances, but to try and maximise the suffering of those individuals, and I don't think we should have any part of that, at least in these situations, offer these poor people the option of a peaceful death.

"To me, that's equivalent to torture and I think it's something that the state should not be involved in. We've had a couple of examples here.

"I was contacted by Jonothan Horrocks, a lifer in Barwon Prison, over a decade ago asking me about this very issue.

"We've got prisoners in South Australian jails, the Snowtown murderers, deemed never to be released and in those situations even an attempt recently to access basic communications with pen pals in other countries was denied by the state."

The controversial campaigner was back in the headlines this weekend with reports suggesting he will be investigated by police in every Australian state over his role in nearly 20 deaths over the past three years.

Dr Nitschke brushed off the controversy as a hazard of his job.

"I run an organisation ... its purpose is to make sure that people can access a peaceful death at the time of their choosing," he said.

"So its not surprising, I guess, that many of our members take that opportunity."

Topics: euthanasia, crime, prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, australia, belgium

First posted