Australia workshop set to make suicide pills

KENT TOWN, Australia, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Euthanasia campaigner Dr. Philip Nitschke said Monday he planned to hold a workshop for 30 elderly Australians to make their own suicide pills.

The so-called "peaceful pill" is made from over-the-counter ingredients and euthanasia lobby group, Exit Australia, said the peaceful pill would be the focus of its efforts, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corp, Monday.

Nitschke said Exit's workshop scheduled for next year would occur at a remote location.

"They will each teach themselves, they will each only manufacture for themselves, they won't be making enough to sell to their friends or to give to their wives or husbands," he said. "They will just come together, they will walk home with 10 grams of peaceful pills knowing that they've all done it themselves and that puts it right on the edge of law."

John James of Australia's Right to Life group has voiced concerns about the pill and the proposed peaceful pill workshop.

"I would have thought public health authorities would be wanting to scrutinize this," he said.