Why suicide drugs should be issued to the elderly | Philip Nitschke | TEDxDarwin

Suicide is a fundamental human right, not just a medical privilege conferred on the terminally ill. Euthanasia drugs should be issued to all those over 70 to use if they wish. Longevity and quality of life will increase.
For more than two decades Dr Philip Nitschke has been active in the Australian right to die movement, and has influenced the worldwide debate on voluntary euthanasia. In 1996, Dr Nitschke became the first physician in the world to administer a legal lethal voluntary injection to four terminally ill patients in 1996 under the Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.
As Founder and Director of Exit International - a leading end of life rights advocacy and information non-profit - Dr Nitschke has written extensively in the area of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide including two books, Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill published by Penguin and The Peaceful Pill eHandbook published by Exit International USA. His autobiography Damned if I Do with Peter Corris was published by Melbourne University Press in 2013.
Dr Nitschke holds a PhD in applied physics from Flinders University and is a graduate of Sydney Medical School.
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