Press Advisory

True Compassion Advocates
Advocating for seriously ill people and offering positive alternatives to assisted suicide.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5th, 2009

ASSISTED SUICIDE IN WASHINGTON: IT'S NOT ONLY FOR THE SICK ANYMORE.

Advocates of compassionate care will host a Protect the Elderly Demonstration in Bellingham, Washington to protest an Exit International workshop instructing "the well elderly" how to commit suicide. The demonstration will be held on Saturday, November 7th from 12 noon to 1:30 pm at the Sustainable Living Center in Bellingham, Washington. True Compassion Advocates calls Philip Nitschke "a suicide-promoting pariah who shouldn't be allowed to ply his suicide trade in Washington State."

Eileen Geller, Hospice RN, BSN, and President of True Compassion Advocates (TCA), noted that it has taken less than a year for assisted suicide in Washington State to spread from the terminally ill to the "well elderly" targeted by Australian Philip Nitschke as his "core audience." "Nitschke's presence in Washington State proves what opponents of assisted suicide have said all along," said Geller. "Once assisted suicide is legalized, the slippery slope is inevitable, precipitous, and dangerous."

With a history of administering lethal injections to end four patients' lives in Australia and a number suicide attempts resulting from his how-to suicide book, suicide-promotion workshops, and custom-made suicide paraphernalia, "It's no wonder that Dr Nitschke is called 'Dr Death'-his workshops victimize seniors and promote elder abuse" said Geller. "With chilling consistency, Nitschke also favors providing suicide advice to "troubled teens," though at least in Bellingham he is limiting attendance to those 51 and older."

Nitschke stated he wanted to come to Washington State because its recent legalization of assisted suicide will make it easier for him to set up shop in Bellingham without the legal challenges he has faced in Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Geller called Nitschke's efforts to create a suicide tourism haven for depressed Americans and Canadians "deeply distressing" and called on the Washington State Attorney General's office to uphold Washington's suicide statute (RCW 9A.36.060) outlawing the promotion of suicide attempts as a class C felony. This statute was not overruled by I-1000 which says that deaths under the Act are not suicide.

Click here for Washington's suicide statute

Click here for relevant portions of Washingtons' Death With Dignity Act

For further information, contact Eileen Geller at 206-366-2715;