Euthanasia campaign to find a home in NZ

Dr Philip Nitschke

Australian euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke says he plans to transfer his operations to a base at New Zealand's Voluntary Euthanasia Society in Auckland.

He also plans to hold workshops in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Dr Nitschke said yesterday he would like to later hold "peaceful pill" workshops in New Zealand teaching participants how to produce a lethal drug, similar to one he staged in New South Wales last month.

The campaigner is planning to move his organisation to New Zealand before some of his activities are outlawed in Australia, and said he would fly to New Zealand on December 31 to relocate the origin of his Exit International's website at the offices of Auckland's right-to-die group.

The activist is making the move ahead of the January 6 enactment of an Australian law which bans the promotion of euthanasia by telephone or internet, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"The climate is a lot less oppressive in New Zealand," he said.

His alleged participation in assisted suicides and instruction of euthanasia techniques for the elderly or terminally ill has caused controversy in Australia.

From January 6, Exit's website will feature a warning that it is illegal in Australia to access the site, although Dr Nitschke said it was unlikely internet users would be prosecuted.

The law would be selectively targeted against website operators such as his organisation.

"[But] that's not going to be easy if we're operating out of New Zealand," he said.

"We don't wish to walk into what seems to be a clear trap being set here [in Australia]."

Lesley Martin, who was jailed over her mother's death, has said her separate Dignity New Zealand group preferred to focus on changing the law than instructing on suicide techniques.

But Dr Nitschke said a law in favour of voluntary euthanasia was unlikely to succeed in New Zealand.

"I'm pessimistic about New Zealand or for that matter any other country passing any legislation in the near future," he said.

"Most of my members [aged in their 80s] simply say: 'We haven't got the time to mess around'."

- NZPA