CONTROVERSIAL Australian assisted-suicide advocate Philip Nitschke will hold a meeting and workshop in Dublin today after receiving confirmation late last night that a social centre was willing to host the event.
The Outhouse, Buswells Hotel and the Macro centre had disassociated themselves from the planned event in recent days but last night the Seomra Spraoi centre in Dublin’s Belvedere Court accepted the booking from his group, Exit International. Dr Nitschke said he had never encountered such resistance to his meetings.
“When we came to Ireland we understood that there may be some opposition, but we did not expect such a well-orchestrated campaign of censorship. It is simply unacceptable in a civilised,western country such as Ireland to have one section of the population threaten everyone else in this way,” he said.
When he announced his plan for an Irish event earlier this month, Dr Nitschke said he was coming here because, over the years, Exit had received “significant interest” from older people in Ireland wanting information about their end-of-life choices.
He blamed the “strong-arm pressure tactics” of religious groups for the difficulties in booking a venue for this meeting.
“It is one thing not to agree with the idea that the elderly and the seriously ill should have choice in the manner and timing of their death, but it is another thing entirely to say that no one should be allowed to talk about these issues.”
He said he had been observing a number of Irish pro-life blogs and it was apparent that lobbying was going on to make sure Exit would not be able to have a meeting. “With no venue, meetings become almost impossible,” he said. “The end result of this is that people are denied information and choice.”
