Philip Haig Nitschke is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Government of Australia. Nitschke was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection, after which the patient activated the syringe using a computer. Nitschke states that he and his group are regularly subject to harassment by authorities. In 2015, Nitschke burned his medical practising certificate in response to what he saw as onerous conditions that violated his right to free speech, imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia. Nitschke has been referred to in the media as "Dr Death" or "the Elon Musk of assisted suicide".
Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, embodied in his quote, "Dying is not a crime". Kevorkian said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He was convicted of murder in 1999 and was often portrayed in the media with the name of "Dr. Death".
The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995(NT) was a law legalising euthanasia in the Northern Territory of Australia, which was passed by the territory's Legislative Assembly in 1995. The Act was passed by the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly on 25 May 1995 by a vote of 15 to 10, received the Administrator's assent on 16 June 1995, and entered into force on 1 July 1996. A year later, a repeal bill was brought before the Northern Territory Parliament in August 1996, but was defeated by 14 votes to 11.
John Howard is an Australian stage and screen actor. Howard is best known for his appearances in television series Blue Heelers, SeaChange, Always Greener, All Saints and Packed to the Rafters, as well as his portrayal of The People Eater in the Mad Max franchise.
Voluntary euthanasia is the purposeful ending of another person's life at their request, in order to relieve them of suffering. Voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have been the focus of intense debate in the 21st century, surrounding the idea of a right to die. Some forms of voluntary euthanasia are legal in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Spain.
Michael Caton is an Australian actor, comedian and television host, best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series The Sullivans, Darryl Kerrigan in 1997's low-budget hit film The Castle, and Ted Taylor in the television series Packed to the Rafters.
Jeremy Hartley Sims is an Australian actor and director.
They Only Kill Their Masters is a 1972 American mystery film directed by James Goldstone, written by Lane Slate, and starring James Garner and Katharine Ross, with a supporting cast featuring Hal Holbrook, June Allyson, Tom Ewell, Peter Lawford, Edmond O'Brien, and Arthur O'Connell. The title refers to Doberman dogs that might have been responsible for a woman's murder currently under investigation by the local police chief (Garner).
The Patrick White Playwrights' Award is an annual Australian literary award established jointly by the Sydney Theatre Company and The Sydney Morning Herald in honour of Patrick White's contribution to Australian theatre. The award was launched in 2000 and in 2011, was amended to include the Patrick White Fellowship.
Reginald Eurias Cathey was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles as Norman Wilson in The Wire, Martin Querns in Oz, the game show announcer in Square One Television, and Freddy Hayes in House of Cards, the last earning him three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, including a win in 2015.
Reginald Cribb is an Australian playwright and actor.
Race to Witch Mountain is a 2009 American science fiction adventure thriller film directed by Andy Fickman. The film stars Dwayne Johnson alongside AnnaSophia Robb, Carla Gugino, Ciarán Hinds, Alexander Ludwig, Tom Everett Scott, and Christopher Marquette.
A euthanasia device is a machine engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain. The most common devices are those designed to help terminally ill people die by voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide without prolonged pain. They may be operated by a second party, such as a physician, or by the person wishing to die. There is an ongoing debate on the ethics of euthanasia and the use of euthanasia devices.
Suicide tourism, or euthanasia tourism, is the practice of potential suicide candidates travelling to a jurisdiction to die by suicide or assisted suicide which is legal in some jurisdictions, or the practice of travelling to a jurisdiction in order to obtain drugs that can aid in the process of ending one's own life.
A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag or hood, is part of a euthanasia device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to die by suicide through inert gas asphyxiation. It is usually used in conjunction with a flow of an inert gas that is lighter or less dense than air, like helium or nitrogen. Continuing to breathe expels carbon dioxide and this prevents the panic, sense of suffocation and struggling before unconsciousness, known as the hypercapnic alarm response caused by the presence of high carbon dioxide concentrations in the blood. This method also makes the direct cause of death difficult to trace if the bag and gas canister are removed before the death is investigated. While asphyxiation by helium can be detected at autopsy, there is currently no test that can detect asphyxiation by nitrogen. For this reason, nitrogen is commonly the preferred choice for people who do not want the cause of death established.
Jacqueline Ruth Weaver is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. Weaver emerged in the 1970s Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as Stork (1971) for which she won AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974). She later starred in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) for which she won the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in Film, Squizzy Taylor (1982), and a number of television films, miniseries, and Australian productions of plays such as Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Last Cab to Darwin is a 2003 Australian drama/comedy stage play written by Reg Cribb and based upon the true story of taxi driver Max Bell who was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer in the early 1990s. The 2003 production was presented both at the Sydney Opera House and the Octagon Theatre in Perth.
Mark Coles Smith, also known by his musical identity as Kalaji, is an Aboriginal Australian actor of stage and screen, sound designer, field recordist, writer, and composer. He is known for his roles in the feature films Last Cab to Darwin (2015), Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), and Occupation: Rainfall (2020), as well as the television series Mystery Road: Origin (2022), and the Canadian series Hard Rock Medical (2013–18).
Ningali Josie Lawford, also known as Ningali Lawford-Wolf and Josie Ningali Lawford, was an Aboriginal Australian actress known for her roles in the films Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Bran Nue Dae (2009), and Last Cab to Darwin (2015), for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Rams is a 2020 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Jeremy Sims, written by Jules Duncan, and starring Sam Neill, Michael Caton, and Miranda Richardson. It is based on the Icelandic drama film Rams (2015) by Grímur Hákonarson.
