A controversial Edinburgh fringe comedy by euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, which explores ways to skirt around laws on assisted suicide, has been threatened with closure.
The show, titled Dancing With Death, would see Nitschke – nicknamed Dr Death – “teaching the funny side of the right-to-die debate” to Edinburgh audiences, as well as offering demonstrations on his “Destiny” euthanasia machine.
The synopsis of the show reads: “From his involvement in the deaths of four real-life patients under Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, to his fondness for the do-it-yourself approach, Philip takes his audience on a rip-roaring ride through his 20 years working with life’s one certainty: death.”
However, during rehearsals on Tuesday afternoon, the head of voluntary euthanasia group Exit International was visited by the police and the city council, who raised last-minute safety concerns about the production before its planned debut at 6pm on Thursday.
The controversial Australian doctor, who is suspended from practising in his home country, was questioned under caution in April by the Metropolitan police about the content of the Edinburgh show, after concerns it breached UK assisted suicide laws. He could have faced a maximum 14-year prison sentence if convicted, but in June, the Met said it would take no further action.
Nitschke was originally due to work with comedian Mel Moon, who has a rare and incurable endocrine disorder, but the pair decided to do separate shows. Before each performance of Dicing With Death, the audience will be required to raise their hands to agree that they will not use any of the information in the show to take their own life – though this is not legally binding.
On Monday, Nitschke met the Edinburgh fringe media team who told him there had been complaints about the nature of his show, but according to the doctor they were “not troubled by them”.
However, police officers and a council official visited the technical rehearsal on Tuesday and confirmed representatives would be in the audience if the production went ahead.
“They had a look around the stage and at the machine and wanted me to explain details of the euthanasia machine, how I would be using it in the show and how close the public were going to be to the machine,” said Nitschke. “I told them that at the end of the show we were going to ask a member of the public to come up and use the machine. They said that would present problems because there were bylaws around compressed gasses it might be infringing.
“They were using a lot of laws that I had never heard of before – I tried to point out that there would probably be people in the audience in wheelchairs who are on oxygen and so that issue around having compressed gasses in public spaces is unheard of.”
Nitschke’s controversial machine is a new version of the Deliverance machine he used to end the lives of four people in the 90s by helping them inhale a lethal cocktail of gases. At the end of each show, an audience member will be allowed to inhale a non-lethal gas through the apparatus’s gas mask or nasal probe.
The hour-long show, which takes the form of a lecture, will discuss the history of euthanasia as well as talking about how people can get around the laws on assisted suicide. Nitschke said he was convinced the safety issues being brandished by the police and council were being used as an excuse to shut down the show.
“Initially they asked if I was going to be running pure nitrogen through the machine and they told me that could be a danger to a volunteer, so I said: ‘Well if it’s going to be a problem I can just use pure air,’” he said. “That’s when they moved on to the problem of the air being compressed, so it didn’t seem to matter – it seemed to me these council bylaws were just something to hang a decision on, rather than a real concern. I can’t imagine someone called up and said ‘I’m concerned about compressed gases.’ Someone must have complained and then they looked at an issue to pick on.”
A spokesperson from Edinburgh’s council confirmed it had visited Nitschke’s show with the police after “safety concerns” and said a decision over whether the show would be able to go ahead would be made on Thursday afternoon.
If the performance is allowed to run, it will be the first time the material will be seen in public and Nitschke said he hoped people would find it entertaining.
“Basically we have made it pretty clear we are going to be talking about suicide and obviously [that] does annoy some people,” said Nitschke. “I want people to go home feeling like they’ve had a good time but also, hopefully, to understand there is more to this issue that a younger audience may not have thought of and to reflect a little bit on their own mortality.”
Nitschke’s medical licence was suspended in July last year, following allegations he counselled 45-year-old Nigel Brayley to take his own life. However, the doctor has won an appeal against the emergency suspension. While it is not clear whether Nitschke will get his medical licence back, the ruling’s basis – that he posed a serious and immediate risk to people – was quashed.