Here are 10 things you did not know about the Australian euthanasia advocate:

1. He completed a PhD in laser physics in 1972

2. In 1996, Dr Nitschke became the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, lethal voluntary injection under the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 (NT)

3. Four of his terminally ill patients used this law, before it was overturned in March 1997

4. That same year, Dr Nitschke retired from medical practice to found the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation (now called Exit International). He now lives in the Netherlands

5. Despite not practising as a doctor for more than a decade, Dr Nitschke’s medical registration was suspended by the Australian Medical Board in July 2014

6. But his registration was immediately restored a year later when the NT Supreme Court rule the decision unlawful

7. He burned his medical registration certificate on November 27, 2015

8. Dr Nitschke’s autobiography, Damned If I Do (with Peter Corris), was published by Melbourne University Press in 2013

9. Exit International is a non-profit Australian public company with an online membership of 20,000 supporters around the world

10. It sets itself apart from other aid-in-dying organisations by taking a civil rights (non-medical) approach to a person’s right to determine the time and manner of their passing. The organisation believes that “this decision is best left to the individual concerned”.

Dr Nitschke will be at the Lismore Workers Club, 231 Keen St, Lismore, on Saturday, February 3, from 1pm. Further information can be found on exitinternational.net/meetings/workshops.