Philip Nitschke is the founder and director of Exit International and lead author of the Peaceful Pill eHandbook.
A former medical doctor, in 1996 Philip helped four of his terminally ill patients to die using Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.
Philip is the co-author of:
- Going to Switzerland: how to plan your final exit (Exit International, 2023)
- The Peaceful Pill Handbook Essentials (with Fiona Stewart) (Exit International, 2024)
- Damned If I Do – Autobiography (with Peter Corris) (Melbourne University Press, 2013)
- Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill (with Fiona Stewart) (Penguin, 2005)
Philip has designed several end of life machines including the CoGen and the Destiny.
The Deliverance Machine (used in the Northern Territory by his patients in 1996) is on display in the British Science Museum in London.
Philip holds a PhD in experimental physics from Flinders University. He is a graduate of Sydney University Medical School.
In December 2023, he appeared as an expert witness for the defense in the stay of execution application concerning Kenneth Eugene Smith. On 25 January 2024 Smith was executed using nitrogen hypoxia and a facemask in the world’s first execution of this nature.