Voluntary euthanasia advocate and former medical doctor Philip Nitschke plans to hold Australia’s first conference on rational suicide – the idea that people do not have to be terminally ill or depressed to want to die – at Victoria’s State Library in Melbourne next year.

Philosophers and sociologists will be invited among those asked to attend, but members of Australia’s medical profession will not be invited to speak, Nitschke has told Guardian Australia.

Nitschke has been widely condemned by the medical profession for failing to advise a 45-year-old Perth man, Nigel Brayley, who was not his patient, to see a psychiatrist after receiving an email from Brayley saying he wanted to take his own life.

Brayley was healthy and did not have a terminal illness. In May 2014 he took his own life using the drug Nembutal, which he illegally imported, and which Nitschke has written a handbook about how to obtain.

Nitschke has argued that Brayley made a rational decision to suicide. The concept of rational suicide means that people who decide to take their own life do not necessarily have to be suffering from psychological distress or mental illness, or suffering with a terminal, untreatable medical condition.

The majority of medical professionals dispute the concept, and believe healthy people who wish to take their own life are overwhelmingly suffering from mental illness or distress which can and should be treated.

Nitschke burned his medical registration after a long-running investigation into his conduct by the Medical Board of Australia, which resulted in a long list of conditions being placed upon him if he wanted to continue practising medicine.

Those conditions made practising as a doctor while also advocating for voluntary euthanasia on behalf of the right-to-die organisation he founded, Exit International, impossible, so Nitschke chose to relinquish his career to continue his euthanasia work.

But unlike most proponents of voluntary euthanasia, Nitschke believes it is not just the severely terminally ill that should have the right to end their own life. Now that his medical career is over, he says, he will be pushing to extend the euthanasia debate by pushing the idea of rational suicide, a concept even many supporters of voluntary euthanasia balk at.

Nitschke believes all elderly people regardless of their health condition should be issued with Nembutal, a class of drug known as a barbiturate that proves fatal at high doses, so they have the option of taking their own life.

He says prisoners serving life sentences and with no eligibility for parole should be given the same option, which he says is an example of rational suicide because they are not always depressed or unwell. Similarly, he says someone who loses their spouse and who decides that as a result, they do not want to live any more, should have the freedom to make the choice to die without being accused of being depressed.

“The reality is, a portion of our population will suicide and I don’t think we should make it so hard,” Nitschke said.

“This is not something that doesn’t gain a degree of academic importance and rigorous discussion, it can’t just be pushed aside as a non-issue. But the overwhelming and prevailing sentiment of the medical profession is that this [rational suicide] is something which doesn’t exist.

“In other words, all suicide is a manifestation of mental diseases, and if you can’t see the disease, it just means you haven’t looked hard enough.”

He admitted the concept of rational suicide was “a dangerous idea”.

Nitschke said the social commentator and radio broadcaster Phillip Adams, whose work has examined voluntary euthanasia, would deliver the keynote address at the conference, to be held on 22 September.

When contacted by Guardian Australia, Adams said he had not yet been invited to do so by Nitschke. He added that should Nitschke ask him, he would deliver an address at the conference, and that he and Nitschke were old friends.

A spokeswoman for the library confirmed the venue had been booked by Exit International for 22 September. “The state library is not involved or affiliated in any way as this is an external booking for a venue hire, so we can’t confirm what the conference will be addressing or who will be attending, she said.

One of Australia’s most eminent psychiatrists and mental health campaigners, Prof Ian Hickie, said while he welcomed free speech, he found Nitschke’s ideas “unacceptable”.



The vast majority of suicidal people had an underlying mental health problem which could be compounded or brought on by issues such as social isolation or the loss of a loved one, he said. “I think it is disingenuous to confound issues of voluntary euthanasia and suicide,” he said. “Nitschke has no understanding of mental health and related issues, and absolutely no empathy.

“He has demonstrated a lack of humanity and a lack of concern for those who find themselves in these situations and their families, and a complete lack of compassion for those who are socially isolated and trying to connect with their world.”

Hickie said he welcomed the debate about voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill but he strongly rejected the idea that all people over a certain age should be issued with Nembutal.

“I find it a totally unacceptable and appalling idea that age is a proxy for the end of your useful life,” Hickie said. “To reinforce that is an abhorrent idea.

“We have some of the most productive members of our society in their 80s and 90s, and to suggest they should be even thinking about exiting our society is counterproductive.”

While he stopped short of calling on the state library to reject the conference, Hickie said “any organisation needs to consider what it is condoning when it hosts such debates”.

Nitschke is based in Switzerland but is in Australia holding workshops on voluntary euthanasia throughout the country.

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