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CNN Live At Daybreak
Man Australians Call Dr. Death Heading to U.S.
Aired January 09, 2003 - 05:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the man Australians call Dr. Death is heading to the United States. Dr. Philip Nitschke, Australians' version of Jack Kevorkian, will be in San Diego this weekend to demonstrate his new suicide machine to about 100 members of the Hemlock Society. That's a volunteer euthanasia group.
Right now, Dr. Nitschke is in Daoun (ph) in northern Australia and he joins us by phone.
Dr. Nitschke, just tell us a bit about this new machine which you will be demonstrating over the weekend.
DR. PHILIP NITSCHKE, SUICIDE DOCTOR: Oh, yes, hello.
It's, look it, the machine is a very simple device which has really been developed because we don't have any decent legislation in Australia for voluntary euthanasia. We used to. In fact, we had the world's first here in northern Australia, but that only lasted eight months, which made it legal for a doctor to help a dying patient to end their life. Well, that's gone now and anyone who helps someone risks serious prison terms if they do.
So the device was developed so that people, when they find themselves in that situation, can effectively affect a peaceful end themselves. It simply generates pure carbon monoxide and the patient can switch on the machine and a simple nasal tube provides about a liter of pure carbon monoxide every minute and the patient dies quite peacefully. And that's done with the patient's total control. They don't need any help and so as that they don't break the law.
VAUSE: Dr. Nitschke, your work in Australia has created a lot of controversy from the prime minister down. Are you expecting a similar reception when you arrive here in the United States?
NITSCHKE: Well, I guess there will be some people who will object. But I think that most people support the idea of legislation which would allow it to be lawful for someone to help a dying person end their life. In the U.S., you've only got one state, that is Oregon, which has gone down this path now. Most Americans, as we see from the polls, are like most Australians, who want this change.
But the parliamentary process and the political process seems incapable of delivering it. They're under such pressure from entrenched interests, in particular church interests, delivering these social changes which are so necessary.
So I guess there will be a degree of opposition in your country, as we've seen here. But most Australians want to see legislation and in the absence of legislation they want to know that people can help themselves and not go out, as most Australian, elderly Australians do when they don't have decent access to these sorts of devices, and hang themselves.
VAUSE: But doctor...
NITSCHKE: Hanging is by far the common.
VAUSE: Dr. Nitschke, if I can just interrupt. There's some controversy in Australia over what they're calling now rational suicide, three instances of people who were not depressed or apparently not depressed in fairly good health, not suffering from any kind of terminal disease, not in pain, who decided to take their own life.
NITSCHKE: Yes, that's true. I mean these are people who attended the workshops that I ran through Exit Australia. The most prominent was Lisette Nigot from Perth. She was an 80-year-old. She didn't want to wait until she became incapacitated. She felt that she had lived a good life and she decided to take that step of ending her own life as a rational choice rather than find herself, as she said, suddenly incapacitated and then being trapped, knowing that in the current climate no one could legally help her die.
So she took that step. A couple of others who attended my workshops also did that and that's attracted, as you indicated, comment from the prime minister down about their disquiet over such issues.
VAUSE: OK, Dr. Nitschke, joining us there on the telephone from Daoun, Australia.
Thank you for your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 9, 2003 - 05:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the man Australians call Dr. Death is heading to the United States. Dr. Philip Nitschke, Australians' version of Jack Kevorkian, will be in San Diego this weekend to demonstrate his new suicide machine to about 100 members of the Hemlock Society. That's a volunteer euthanasia group.
Right now, Dr. Nitschke is in Daoun (ph) in northern Australia and he joins us by phone.
Dr. Nitschke, just tell us a bit about this new machine which you will be demonstrating over the weekend.
DR. PHILIP NITSCHKE, SUICIDE DOCTOR: Oh, yes, hello.
It's, look it, the machine is a very simple device which has really been developed because we don't have any decent legislation in Australia for voluntary euthanasia. We used to. In fact, we had the world's first here in northern Australia, but that only lasted eight months, which made it legal for a doctor to help a dying patient to end their life. Well, that's gone now and anyone who helps someone risks serious prison terms if they do.
So the device was developed so that people, when they find themselves in that situation, can effectively affect a peaceful end themselves. It simply generates pure carbon monoxide and the patient can switch on the machine and a simple nasal tube provides about a liter of pure carbon monoxide every minute and the patient dies quite peacefully. And that's done with the patient's total control. They don't need any help and so as that they don't break the law.
VAUSE: Dr. Nitschke, your work in Australia has created a lot of controversy from the prime minister down. Are you expecting a similar reception when you arrive here in the United States?
NITSCHKE: Well, I guess there will be some people who will object. But I think that most people support the idea of legislation which would allow it to be lawful for someone to help a dying person end their life. In the U.S., you've only got one state, that is Oregon, which has gone down this path now. Most Americans, as we see from the polls, are like most Australians, who want this change.
But the parliamentary process and the political process seems incapable of delivering it. They're under such pressure from entrenched interests, in particular church interests, delivering these social changes which are so necessary.
So I guess there will be a degree of opposition in your country, as we've seen here. But most Australians want to see legislation and in the absence of legislation they want to know that people can help themselves and not go out, as most Australian, elderly Australians do when they don't have decent access to these sorts of devices, and hang themselves.
VAUSE: But doctor...
NITSCHKE: Hanging is by far the common.
VAUSE: Dr. Nitschke, if I can just interrupt. There's some controversy in Australia over what they're calling now rational suicide, three instances of people who were not depressed or apparently not depressed in fairly good health, not suffering from any kind of terminal disease, not in pain, who decided to take their own life.
NITSCHKE: Yes, that's true. I mean these are people who attended the workshops that I ran through Exit Australia. The most prominent was Lisette Nigot from Perth. She was an 80-year-old. She didn't want to wait until she became incapacitated. She felt that she had lived a good life and she decided to take that step of ending her own life as a rational choice rather than find herself, as she said, suddenly incapacitated and then being trapped, knowing that in the current climate no one could legally help her die.
So she took that step. A couple of others who attended my workshops also did that and that's attracted, as you indicated, comment from the prime minister down about their disquiet over such issues.
VAUSE: OK, Dr. Nitschke, joining us there on the telephone from Daoun, Australia.
Thank you for your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
