The sisters of an Australian woman who committed suicide using the drug Nembutal, have called on Attorney-General Robert McClelland to ban Philip Nitschke's book Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill (written with Fiona Stewart, Penguin). However, Nitschke said his book does not encourage or direct a person to commit suicide. The woman in question had been refused membership to Nitschke's organisation Exit International on psychiatric grounds, according to ABC Online. ‘If a person has got a clear psychiatric history we let them know that we think that they need to access appropriate services for that,' said Nitschke. Another book by Nitschke, The Peaceful Pill Handbook, cannot be sold in retail shops in Australia, after being refused classification in 2007. However, it can be mail-ordered by individuals from Exit International in the US, is available on Amazon and, since May, is able to be sold in New Zealand if sealed and with an indication of censorship displayed.

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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