Philip Haig Nitschke[1] (/ˈnɪtʃkɪ/; born 8 August 1947) is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International.

[9] Rejecting a career in the sciences, he instead travelled to the Northern Territory to take up work with the Aboriginal land rights activist Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji at Wave Hill.

[16] He also made headlines, even angering some fellow right-to-die advocates, when he presented his plan to launch a "death ship" that would have allowed him to circumvent local laws by euthanising people from around the world in international waters.

Although Nitschke was unaware of the investigation at the time, he now believes that Brayley, whom he described as a "serial killer", had made a rational decision to commit suicide rather than face long imprisonment.

[30] The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) and Beyondblue said Nitschke had an obligation to refer the man to a psychologist or psychiatrist[31] (a view dismissed by the NT Supreme Court in 2015).

On 23 July 2014, as a consequence of the Brayley case, the MBA voted to use emergency powers to suspend his practitioner's licence immediately, on the grounds that he presented "a serious risk to public health and safety".

These conditions included prohibitions on giving advice or information to the public or patients about euthanasia, or Nembutal, or suicide, and forcing him to rescind his endorsement of and involvement with the 'Peaceful Pill' handbook and related videos.

[41] In response Nitschke, calling the MBA's actions "a heavy-handed and clumsy attempt to restrict the free flow of information on end-of-life choice", surveyed more than 1,000 members of his advocacy group, Exit International, and received strong support for ending his medical registration.

[45][46][47][48][49] On 2 May 2009 Nitschke was detained for nine hours by British Immigration officials at Heathrow Airport after arriving for a visit to the UK to lecture on voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life choices.

[50] However, although assisting someone to commit suicide in the UK was illegal, the law did not apply to a person lecturing on the concept of euthanasia, and Nitschke was allowed to enter.

[56] In April 2016 British police, acting on an Interpol drug alert, forced entry into the home of a member of Nitschke's organisation, retired professor Dr Avril Henry, aged 81,[57] who was in failing health.

[58] Without knocking, police —accompanied by a psychiatrist, GP and social worker— forced their way into Dr Henry's home by smashing her glass front door at 10 pm and questioned her for six hours, confiscating a bottle of imported Nembutal, and leaving at 4 am.

[65] This coincided with another action by New Zealand police in which 76-year old Patsy McGrath, a member of Nitschke's Exit group, had her home raided in 2016 and her store-bought helium balloon cylinder confiscated under warrant.

[74] In another case Lucas Taylor, 26, committed suicide in Germany by taking Nembutal after soliciting advice at an Exit International online forum (which, according to Nitschke, he accessed by claiming his age was 65).

[8] In 2024, Nitschke appeared in an Alabama court as an expert witness to oppose the state's plan to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith using a mask-and-gas technique incorporating nitrogen.

[76] Nitschke testified that the mask-and-gas approach had been rejected decades ago because it was unreliable, and that Smith could be "horribly maimed without a complete seal between mask and face" leading to incomplete cerebral hypoxia and a resultant vegetative state.

[78] The Australian Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, planned to introduce legislation just before the 2010 election to make internet service providers block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites.

Nitschke said the proposals were the "final nail in the coffin for euthanasia advocacy" in Australia, where people are banned from discussing end-of-life issues over the phone, buying books about it or importing printed material on it.

A government spokeswoman said euthanasia would not be targeted by the proposed filter,[80] but confirmed that "The (website) ... for accessing an electronic version of the [Peaceful Pill Handbook] was classified as refused classification" because it provided detailed instruction in "crimes relating to the possession, manufacture and importation of barbiturates".

Similar TV commercials, planned for use during Nitschke's Canadian lecture tour of 2010, were likewise banned by the Television Bureau of Canada, after lobbying by anti-euthanasia pressure groups.

[82] In 2010 Nitschke planned to use billboards in Australia to feature the message "85 per cent of Australians support voluntary euthanasia but our government won't listen".

He called it "flawless" and "undetectable", saying the new process uses ordinary household products including a barbecue gas bottle — available from hardware stores — filled with nitrogen.

[89] Nitschke said the kit was made available by Exit International in response to growing demand for something to test the Nembutal obtained from Mexico, often delivered in the post without labels.

[90] In October 2009 Nitschke announced his intention to inform people at his workshops where to obtain a long-storage form of sodium pentobarbital (Nembutal) that manufacturers say can be stored for up to fifty years without degrading.

[95] Following a 2013 workshop showcasing Nitschke's nitrogen gas product, the AMA's WA branch president and general practitioner,[96] Richard Choong, said that he was strongly opposed to it, regardless of its technical legality, since "any machine that can help you kill yourself can be abused, misused and maliciously used".

[104] He performed a newer Australian version of his show, retitled Practising without a License, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2016 and again in Darwin in August 2016.

In reviewing the book, bioethicist Michael Cooke wrote "Nitschke's insight has been to recognise that assisted suicide is no longer about compassionate medicine, but about technology.

"[107] The Peaceful Pill Handbook print edition was originally published in the U.S. in 2006, written by Nitschke and partner Fiona Stewart; the eHandbook version is updated six times a year.

Called The Peaceful Pill eHandbook, it contains video clips on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia methods such as barbiturates, over the counter drugs, gases and poisons.

[8] Nitschke's personal story from his early days, to his activist student days in Adelaide, to working with Aboriginal land rights groups in Australia's Far North; to his successful campaign to have euthanasia legalised in Australia A 2004 documentary film, Mademoiselle and the Doctor,[111] focused on the quest of a retired Perth professor, Lisette Nigot, a healthy 79-year-old, to seek a successful method of voluntary euthanasia.