Australia’s leading euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke is under fire for communicating with a suicidal man, despite knowing he was not terminally ill or elderly.
Perth man Nigel Brayley, 45, died in May this year after taking the euthanasia drug Nembutal, which he illegally imported.
In emails obtained by the ABC, Mr Brayley admitted to Dr Nitschke he was not “supporting a terminal medical illness”, but said he was “suffering”.
Now Dr Nitschke is being accused of moving into uncharted territory by agreeing to assist Mr Brayley despite knowing he was not terminally ill.
“If a 45-year-old comes to a rational decision to end his life, researches it in the way he does, meticulously, and decides that … now is the time I wish to end my life, they should be supported. And we did support him in that,” he said.
Life fell apart after wife’s death in quarry
Mr Brayley, who had a high-paying job in the oil and gas industry, was not an obvious euthanasia candidate.
But his friends Kerry and Trish O’Neil could see Mr Brayley’s life spiralling out of control after the death of his wife Lina, who died at a local quarry in 2011 in what was at first thought to be an accident.
The case was upgraded to a murder inquiry, and while police never named Mr Brayley as a suspect, he told the O’Neils the investigation and the loss of his job had made him depressed.
In the weeks before his death he told Dr Nitschke that he planned to take his own life.
“We had a lot of communication with Nigel, he’d been in touch with us for a while, he’d joined the organisation,” Dr Nitschke said.
“When I went over to Perth he came along to the workshop, I had a talk to him.
“He was younger than the usual age, we have the usual age of 50. He came at a younger age, I think he was 45.”
Nitschke ‘had duty to recommend psychiatric help’
Mr O’Neil said he was “horrified” when he looked at his friend’s computer and found the exchange of emails with Dr Nitschke.
He believes Dr Nitschke, who founded euthanasia group Exit International, had a duty of care to recommend psychiatric help.
“I would’ve expected Dr Nitschke to be coming back and saying, ‘Look, you don’t fit within the ambit of Exit members; you’re not a terminally ill person, you need to seek counselling, assistance, family support’,” he said.
“But that wasn’t done.”
Dr Nitschke says it was not his job to do that, and says Mr Brayley was of sound mind when he made the decision to die.
“If a person comes along and says to me that they’ve made a rational decision to end their life in two weeks, I don’t go along and say ‘Oh have you made a rational decision? Do you think you better think about it? Why don’t you go off and have a counsellor come along and talk to you?” he said.
“We don’t do that.
“If a person is so depressed that they have lost capacity, then they can’t articulate anything,” he added.
“The fact that he was so insightful in his decision to make this choice indicates to me that he was indeed a person who had not lost capacity.
“I’m not saying he wasn’t depressed but was he so depressed that we should constrain him? Should we have certified him, should we have put him into a psychiatric institution, should we have restricted him in some way?”
Dr Nitschke said Mr Brayley was “not at that level” and “people like that should not have their freedom curtailed”.
“I would object to that idea, you are saying he’s depressed therefore we shouldn’t talk to him. Everyone is depressed at times, and at this time this person fit that criteria.”
But Mr O’Neil believes Dr Nitschke’s organisation has moved into uncharted territory.
“I think most people would assume [Exit International’s] role is quite clearly for people who are terminally ill, suffering, reaching the end of their life,” he said.
“Not for people who are going through a down period in their life, everyone goes through a down period in their life.”
Beyond Blue chairman Jeff Kennett said Mr Brayley was not a euthanasia candidate.
“I was appalled. My concept of euthanasia does not extend to helping and giving advice to a 45-year-old guy who clearly did not have a terminal illness,” he said.
“I just think the way Doctor Nitschke expressed himself – that he didn’t see it as his responsibility to do that – to be absolutely abhorrent.”
Mr Kennett, who also posted a series of comments on Twitter, said Dr Nitschke assertion that it was not his duty to intervene was misguided.
“I have never heard so much rubbish in all my life,” he said.
“He’s a medical officer and I don’t accept that argument at all. To have healthy bodies walking around saying, ‘I want out’ – I can understand that.
“What I can’t understand is a medical professional actually supporting them to go out … to leave us.”
25-year-old takes life after accessing Nitschke book
Joe Waterman was 25 when he took his own life in January this year.
Like Mr Brayley, he had illegally imported the euthanasia drug Nembutal.
Last year, for reasons his family could never fathom, the formerly fun-loving young man suddenly changed.
His mother Mary Waterman has since discovered that her son, who had ordered Dr Nitschke’s euthanasia handbook, wrote about being depressed on his iPad.
“I was angry, quite angry that [the book] was just so easy for him to access,” she said.
Mr Waterman was granted that access after simply ticking a box to confirm he was over the age of 50, a move that Dr Nitschke says was out of his control.
“Well he’s obviously a liar because straight away the book is not made available to people unless they’re 50 years of age or [there are] special circumstances,” Dr Nitschke said.
“So I guess if he wants to tell us those lies and accesses the book and then misuses it, then I guess we can’t always be able to protect against that.”
Ms Waterman believes ticking a box is not an adequate measure to restrict access to the book.
“Joe was a liar but of course you’re going to lie if you want to get something, if you’re suicidal and you want to get something that’s going to help you die peacefully.”
“It’s still unbelievable and it’s been nearly six months,” she said. “It’s like a bad dream really, I still find it really hard to imagine life without him.”
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