The parents of teenagers who committed suicide have slammed the disgraced doctor whose writings handed their disturbed children the means by which to end their lives.
The pro-assisted suicide campaigner, who invented the Sarco gas chamber assisted suicide pod, published material online that has been linked to the deaths of over 90 people in the United Kingdom, including the suicides of several teenagers.
Dr Philip Nitschke, a former GP nicknamed ‘Dr Death’, said he published details of a lethal poison, which he described as offering a “cheap” and “reliable” method of achieving a “peaceful death”, in an online suicide “handbook”.
Nitschke also said that he introduced the poison to Kenneth Law, a former chef who then began selling the poison and who has been linked to more than 90 deaths in the UK. Law is currently awaiting trial on 14 charges of first-degree murder and 14 counts of aiding and counselling suicide.
Nitschke reportedly defended the actions of Law, claiming that he was only providing people with the choice of how to end their lives. “We published Ken Law’s contact details in the [online suicide handbook]”, Nitschke said, telling people that “Amazon don’t sell [the poison] anymore, go to Ken Law – and they did”.
“The information got on to the internet, younger people started to take it and die”, Nitschke said. “Now the parents of younger people who end their lives are understandably very distressed”.
“They were very unhappy about us. They said ‘why did you publish that information?’”. Nitschke defended these actions, saying, “On end of life choices, I say a healthier society is where people know the information and can make informed decisions about how they act”.
David Parfett, whose 22-year-old son, Tom, bought the poison from Law and died as a result of ingesting it, said that his son used Nitschke’s research into suicide methods to inform his decision on how to end his life.
“I know my son would still be alive and would have found the support he needed to get through his dark times if taking his own life hadn’t been encouraged as a valid option”, Parfett said. He continued, criticising Nitschke’s defence, saying he “openly encourages and facilitates people to take their own life”.
“[Nitschke’s] research into suicide methods has been published in detail in books and online and was used by my son Tom to choose a suicide method and kill himself”, he said.
He continued, suggested that Nitschke and Law, by making it so easy to buy the poison online, had “effectively handed a loaded gun to my son”.