The Law
The Peaceful Pill eHandbook is published in the USA where freedom of speech is protected by the United States Constitution.
This is because in countries like Australia (the homeland of the authors), there is no right to free speech.
In Australia, for instance, the Government has free reign in deciding what does and does not get published. Via the Government's own 'Office of Film and Literature Classification', all publications in Australia must be submitted and classified by a panel of 'experts'.
If a classification decision is objected to, the offending material is then reviewed by a 'Classification Review Board'. Membership of these panels is signed off by the Australian Attorney General. There is no independent review mechanism in this country.
In addition, in Australia, assisted suicide related material has been banned in other ways.
The Australian Customs Act was amended in 2001 to "prohibit absolutely the importation of devices [and documents] that are designed or customized to be used by a person to commit suicide or to be used by a person to assist another to commit suicide. The Act states "the Government considers that the importation of these goods into Australia is not in the public interest."
And then there is the Suicide Related Materials Offences Act (2006) which prohibits the use of:
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telephone
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email
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fax
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internet
to discuss the practical aspects of assisted suicide/ voluntary euthanasia.
The penalty attached to a breach of this aspect of the Australian Criminal Code is a fine of $110,000 (individual) and $550,000 (for an organisation).
Finally, there Mandatory Internet Filtering, the so-called "Clean Feed".
In the August 2010 session of the Australian Parliament, the Rudd Labor Government will introduce legislation designed to implement mandatory Internet Filtering on all PCs in Australia.
Designed to prevent Australians' access to a secret blacklist of over 1000 websites - of which this site is one - the so-called "Clean Feed" policy will filter websites at ISP level. 
In doing so, the Australian Government joins the governments of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Burma and Nth Korea in deciding for its citizens what they shall or shall not read.
There will be no right of appeal from inclusion on the Blacklist.
For information on the Australian Government Blacklist, visit Wikileaks.org
For information on the proposed "Clean Feed" visit:
To email your thoughts to Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister driving this policy, click HERE.
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