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Ouderenpsychologie
Artikelen / 04/05/2018

Interview with Philip Nitschke

Rebel with a cause

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Massive grey skies, strong winds and heavy showers. A tiny house boat in a canal in the Dutch flower bulb area. Smoke is circling out of a small chimney; the little dog Henny is happy to greet me. Inside the boat a gorgeous view over the canal and a cosy fire burning. For the moment, this is the pied à terre of Australian couple dr. Fiona Stewart (51) and dr. Philip Nitschke (70), authors of the Peaceful Pill Handbook (2017) and leaders of the Exit International organisation – a global pro-euthanasia movement. An interview taking 1.5 hours, showing the passion and drive of the former medical doctor who burned his license-to-practice as a result of severe conflicts with the Australian Medical Association with regard to the topic of euthanasia, or even further, ‘the-fundamental- right-to-die’. At present, he is the leader and spokesperson of the global movement on self-determination with regard to life-end. Here is a meeting with a man, uneasily nicknamed in the conservative media as ‘Dr. Death’.
Wouter Schoonman

What if i called you a rebel with a cause?

‘That is a very flattering one and a nice one. They are not always that nice to me. You see, I have been involved in a couple of different issues (Aboriginal land rights, nuclear disarmament), but this end-of-life issue has become my most important topic. It is the one I am most involved in, the last 25 years. It has become my life, in fact. After my study in physics and the completion of my PhD degree, I decided not to work as a physicist. It was the time of anti-war, anti-Vietnam movements and my work could be used in developing weapons. So, I started to study medicine as a ‘mature student’. After that, I started to work as a junior doctor in the biggest hospital in the Northern Territories. At that time, 1995, the local government brought in a law called the Rights of the terminally Ill act, which