32 - Philip Nitschke - a podcast by Tom Ballard

Again, apologies for the delay, everyone. It's been a while, but I'm back with a doozy of an episode.  

Philip “Dr. Death” Nitschke has been the face of the controversial right-to-die debate in Australia for almost 20 years. He is the founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International and author of The Peaceful Pill Handbook – a book describing ways to commit suicide that has been banned in Australia.

I’ve always been fascinated by Philip’s arguments and his tenacity in presenting them. When I heard he was performing a one-man comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival about his life and various suicide techniques, I had to find out more and jumped at the chance to sit down with him.

Here Philip explains how he came to be performing this show, how he got involved in the euthanasia debate to begin with, his personal approach to death, his response to all the objections, censorship, the failings of modern medicine, “rational suicide”, what it’s like to help someone die and where he sees the debate going next.

My show Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred at the Soho Theatre

@philipnitschke

Dicing With Dr. Death reviewed in the Telegraph, on TV Bomb 

Trailer for The Last Cab To Darwin 

Article: The Death Treatment for The New Yorker 

Article: Don't Get Sucked In By Philip Nitschke by Chris Ilsey

Article: Philip Nitschke's Edinburgh Fringe show visited by police

Article: Euthanasia will fight devastates son

The Peaceful Pill Handbook on wikipedia

Causes of the Week: Exit International (exitinternational.net), Voluntary Euthanasia Party (vep.org.au), Big Life Foundation (biglife.org)

 

Further episodes of Like I'm A Six-Year-Old

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