Exclusive - DIY Euthanasia - Sick Workshop venue dropped after Life Institute alert raised

05.03.2010

Following complaints from the Life Institute to the HSE, a taxpayer-funded venue which was listed as a venue for a "DIY Euthanasia workshop" has now confirmed that the event will not take place there.

A so-called “DIY Euthanasia workshop” was advertised as taking place on March 19th in Outhouse in Capel Street, a centre which was purchased at the cost of €860,000 by the HSE, and which continues to be almost entirely funded by the HSE to the tune of €200,000 every year. The Outhouse has now said the event will not take place there.

Australian euthanasia” campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke, was to host the event. Nitschke heads up Australian outfit Exit International which assists people in committing suicide, usually by taking a lethal dose of a veterinary medicine, Nembutal.

Yesterday the Life Institute wrote to the HSE asking them to have the venue withdrawn and to investigate the matter. Niamh Uí Bhriain said “I would respectfully request that this taxpayer-funded venue be withdrawn from use by this most objectionable organisation, for what is, most likely, an illegal workshop.

Ms Uí Bhriain also called the office of the HSE Chief Executive, Professor Brendan Drumm, and wrote to both Professor Drumm and the Irish Medicines Board regarding the proposed event. The Irish Medicines Board confirmed that Nembutal is not approved for use in Ireland.

“This objectionable ‘workshop’ comes at a time when there is a huge push by pro-euthanasia activists worldwide to introduce the legal killing of the elderly, the sick and the vulnerable,” said Ms Uí Bhriain. “Philip Nitschke is a most controversial figure.” Exit International say they are looking for another venue in Dublin, but the Life Institute said the workshop is not welcome in Ireland, and are “keeping tabs on the situation”.

An article from the Australian Herald Sun reveals that when euthanasia was briefly legal in the Northern Territory, Nitschke was then the doctor of seven people who had applied for permission to die.

Columnist Andrew Bolt wrote “You’d have sworn they were in great pain or days from death, but I later read the truth in Nitschke’s own account in an article he co-wrote for The Lancet. In fact, none of the seven had severe pain, only two were married, and a co-author of The Lancet piece, palliative care expert Prof David Kissane, believes some just needed better medical and psychiatric care. The saddest example is Martha Alfonso-Bowes, who’d announced she had bowel cancer and “there is no hope for me”. In her suicide note, she claimed “I have maybe a few months to live”.

Only in The Lancet did he publicly finally reveal Alfonso-Bowes actually knew surgery could cure her, and her “prognosis was good”. Her real sickness was of the heart. She was 68 and divorced. Her daughter died young, and now she was estranged from her son. “

The Life Institute said that the controversy came less than twelve months after the controversy when Cork University Hospital funded a lecture entitled “Why euthanasia should be legalised”.

“We’re seeing a disturbing trend here,” said Niamh Uí Bhriain. “The push to kill the elderly, the sick and the vulnerable is led by people who advocate a twisted form of utilitarianism; who think that caring for the terminally ill or the aged is a waste of resources. We’ve seen examples of that in the UK campaigner Baroness Warnock who said that people with dementia had ‘a duty to die’ and that treating premature babies was a ‘waste of resources’’. Is that now the HSE’s view? It’s good to see that they’ve withdrawn this tax-payer funded venue in response to complaints but there are still questions to be answered.”

For more on Philip Nitschke read Andrew Bolts article at http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_the_merchant_of_death