I agree, Nitschke has lost the plot...Do you know whether he is being seen as an “model” for people in other countries?

Nitsche has no post grad medical qualifications.
He has not studied palliative care, and really has no idea how palliative medicine works. He is a quack peddler, appealing to a pop culture of “control”.
Read the Derek Humphrey book “Exit” for a professional approach to euthanasia.

In my opinion, Nitschke is indeed a hero. Although he does wish to sell books, he is passionate about the Right to Die. Dr. Nitschke has been doing this for a long time, long before he had the ability to create and sell books on it. He is the new Right to Die leader in the civilized world.

Peter Rugg MD

Rights are there to protect an individual’s good and this is why we fight to defend our rights.

The way I see it, life is the most basic of all goods and the basis of all rights. I mean to say, only those who actually came to life could really claim their rights: Humpty Dumpty, for example, cannot claim any right because he never lived. Moreover, a cadaver can neither claim any right because it is not living anymore, although we give it respect for the sake of the person who lived in that body before.

Now, if euthanasia is the “right to terminate one’s life”, it contradicts the very foundation of rights itself, which is life. Thus, this makes me think that “the right to terminate one’s life” (euthanasia) does not make sense at all.

Euthanasia is a silly oxymoron.

Michael Cook is totally wrong when he says above: 
“Remember, the biggest government ever to endorse voluntary euthanasia was Hitler’s Germany.”
All history books and studies show that the Nazi euthanasia program was murder, genocide.  None of the killed were asked if they wanted to die. None volunteered. None were terminally ill.  It was Nazi racial-cleansing slaughter at its very worst.  A blot on mankind, but not connected in any way to Dr. Nitschke’s
campaign for people to CHOOSE a death with dignity at their life’s end. D H

In response to Derek Humphry’s remarks above, Nazi Germany was indeed a leader in the voluntary euthanasia movement. Its propaganda machine fostered the acceptance of voluntary euthanasia. If anyone has any doubt about this, please watch the film Ich Klage An (available in university libraries). The beautiful heroine asks her loving husband, a university researcher, to release her from life because she suffers from a paralysing disease.

The following article gives more details.
http://www.ethicsandmedicine.com/18/1/18-1-vermaat.htm
Hard on the heels of a philosophy of voluntary euthanasia came involuntary euthanasia of the disabled in the T4 euthanasia program.

The Final Solution—the genocide of Jews and Gypsies—is clearly consistent with this abhorrent philosophy, but is a separate issue. The point is that voluntary euthanasia was indeed associated with the Nazi ideology.

Man is not just an animal. We have a soul and our life does not end with a lethal injection. If we bring this transcendental aspect into the picture we find that Euthanasia is not a solution at all. Suffering and death have a meaning and we have to find it out or else life in itself becomes an absurd. Full marks to Michael Cook.

We don’t own our lives. Our life is sacred. It belongs to God. We have no right to end it. It is insanity to end it ourselves because the natural tendency of man is self-preservation. Anyone who has suicidal tendencies ought to see a therapist or be institutionalized, and those people who suggest it ought to see a therapist too.

Pinky,

Your life might belong to god, but mine does not. Mine belongs to me. My hero, Dr. Jack Kevorkian once asked, “Does a patient have an owner”...and asked many to think about. I thought about it as well and was quick to answer. “Myself”.

I have the right to end my life at my will, and one day sir, I will do so. When I do, it will be at the time, place and means of which I alone will choose. I hope that I will have the support of my own physician, but if I do not, I know that others (including family and supportive organizations) will.

Those who support the right to die (choice of death over undue suffering)do not ever “suggest” suicide (a hastened death) to anyone. However, many of us will support the act IF and WHEN we (the patient and their doctor) decide it appropriate.

There is no one discipline sir, that by discipline, would would not support a hastened death. We right to die supporters are physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy, therapists, aides...etc…

As for seeing a therapist....what is your suggestion when the therapist is supporting the hastened death as well?

Thank you Mr. Humphry for what you do.

Peter Rugg MD

One of the proofs why we do not own our life - we didn’t choose to be born.
...but I’m very happy that I was born and I know it is God’s will that I am. I know I have a mission to do the will of God. And only God can take away what He has given me. He has a purpose for me. Killing oneself is like killing others. Both is God’s.

“Your life might belong to god, but mine does not. Mine belongs to me.”

Had the life one lived was something he got or obtained for himself, it’ll be right to say his life is his own. But since everyone received life without even asking for it, hardly can anyone speak of “ownership of life”. We are not owners but custodians.

Only someone who can lay down his life and take is again can actually claim that he owns life. If supporters of euthanasia can do this, then they will start making sense.

‘voluntary euthanasia’ was actually a fairly common idea around the time of the nazis and up until the 60s - many states in America used it, as well as Sweden and several other European countries.  Not just the Nazis then (!) although I daresay their numbers far outdid anybody else’s and the term ‘voluntary’ wasn’t always strictly accurate.

But eugenics is really a completely seperate debate to this one, which is namely whether or not ethically this man’s actions are acceptable, which I suppose can only really be an individual’s decision.  some people will make decisions based on religion (an individual choice in itself), others based on their own life experiences/illness/emotions or whatever...I don’t think we can make the ‘right’ decision for everybody.  selling his ideas however, i can’t help but feel should be looked down upon - ‘help’ is one thing, profiting from it is another.

My contempt for and rage toward someone who would tell me that I do not, should not have the right to kill myself whenever I please for any reason whatever is boundless. Hug your silly religions to yourselves if they warm you. Babble their nonsense about meaning and God. But keep them away from me. I felt this way at 17 when someone I loved passionately attempted suicide, and the righteous locked him up. I feel this way now at 67.

It is none of your goddamned business if I wish to kill myself--because I stubbed my toe or because my husband died or because the pain from my cancer is excrutiating. It’s my pain, not yours. Help me if you can. I will accept your aid, make as much use of it as possible. And thank you for your concern.

But when I make my decision to die, step aside. Or help me commit suicide if you are able. I will do the same for you. If I am suffering intolerably, do you think I care about citations of precedence in Nazi Germany?

I am so grateful for the existence of compassionate rationalists such as Kevorkian, Humphrey, and Nitschke. It isn’t easy thinking straight and true. It doesn’t win you many friends--but those friends who are steadfast all surely have high intelligence and the largest hearts of all.

Blessings to you Harriet.

I agree that not only is it no one’s business if I choose to hasten my death, but it is also no one’s business if I as a physician choose to support my patient who chooses a hastened death. Too many seem to think that those who choose a hastened death need a reason. “Suffering”, “Pain”, “Dignity”. Although these reasons are ever so valid, for myself I need no reason. We need not explain our “sufferings” to anyone. I will choose to die when I choose to die, and as Harriet stated, I might choose to do so because I stubbed my toe.

Enough of this religious fear, pressure and nonsense.

I want to be selfish.

Bless the doctors who hear and see their patients.

My husband probably could have recovered from acute breathing failure from myasthenia gravis had he agreed to a respirator. But he was tired, weary, yes, unto death of his physical decline. My husband’s doctor would not allow me to interfere. I adored my husband and begged him to try the respirator for a little while after the blood-exchange treatment failed. No, he said. He was adamant. His good doctor was also adamant: it was his perfect right to refuse no matter my pleas and my medical power of attorney. My husband died in my arms quickly and painlessly with morphine.

My grief was immense. Still is. But I changed doctors to that one who had refused my entreaties. It’s a rare person who is so brave and true to his patient. I want him on my side when I reach the end.