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Dr Philip Nitschke

Dr Philip Nitschke, PhD MBBS BSc founded the non-profit organisation Exit International in 1997 (formerly called the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation – VERF).

In 1996, Philip became the first doctor in the world to provide voluntary euthanasia using Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of the Northern Territory and, as a result, four terminally ill patients used this law to end their suffering.

Philip gained his PhD in applied physics from Flinders University in 1972.  He graduated from Sydney University Medical School in 1988. He retired from medicine in 1997 to work full-time on voluntary euthanasia and assisted dying.

Philip lives in the Netherlands.

Dicing with Dr Death – Have a Laugh!

Philip Nitschke has had a varied professional career.

In 2015 he launched his comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe with a show called ‘Dicing with Dr Death’.

Dicing with Dr Death received a number of rave reviews including 4 stars from Edinburgh Three Weeks and 5 stars from TV Bomb.

Philip would go on to perform an ‘Aussie’ version of his Dicing show that was subsequently re-titled ‘Practising without a License’ and held as part of the 2016 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

The show attracted a full house at Melbourne’s The Athenaeum Theatre.

A second performance took place in Darwin in the Northern Territory before Philip returned to his day job of euthanasia activism.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Review, 3 April 2016

“[Nitschke] presented his case with such measure, warm humour and intelligence that even his puns were excusable.”

Jim Schrembi, Herald Sun

Dr Philip Nitschke - Author

Dicing with Dr Death in Darwin

Awards

Exit International Director Dr Philip Nitschke is the recipient of numerous awards including:

  • Rainier Foundation Humanitarian Award, 1996
  • Northern Territorian of the Year, 1997
  • Australian Humanist of the Year, 1998
  • Charles Southwell Award (NZ Association of Rationalists & Humanists), 2001

Philip is an nine-time nominee for Australian of the Year (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) and he is twice a state finalist (2005 & 2006).

Books

  • Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill (with Fiona Stewart, Penguin 2005)
  • Damned if I Do: the Biography (with Peter Corris, Melbourne University Press, 2013)
  • The Peaceful Pill Handbook series (With Fiona Stewart, 2025)
  • Going to Switzerland: how to plan your final exit ( with Fiona Stewart, 2025)

 

 

Philip Nitschke

Philip with Henny Penny (who is now deceased)