About the authorS.
Philip Nitschke
Dr Philip Nitschke, PhD MBBS BSc is the founder and director of Exit International.
With his partner Fiona Stewart, he is co-author of the Peaceful Pill Handbook Essentials and the new Going to Switzerland: how to plan your final exit.
In 1996, Philip became the first doctor in the world to provide voluntary euthanasia using Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of the Northern Territory and, as a result, four terminally ill patients used this law to end their suffering.
The Australian Parliament would go on to overturn the law by way of a conscience vote in March 1997.
Philip gained his PhD in applied physics from Flinders University in 1972. He graduated from Sydney University Medical School in 1988. He retired from medicine in 1997 to work full-time on voluntary euthanasia and assisted dying.
Philip lives in the Netherlands.
Fiona Stewart
Sociologist & Lawyer Fiona Stewart, PhD MPolLaw LLB (Hons) BA, is the co-author with Philip of Going to Switzerland: how to plan your final exit and the Peaceful Pill Handbook series.
Prior to collaborating with Dr Philip Nitschke, Fiona had a career background in academia, online start-ups, the media and consulting (including to the World Health Organisation).
Fiona has published widely in the mainstream media, academic journals and edited collections.
Of her time working in newspaper journalism, she says that her opinions were always getting her into trouble and it was reassuring to find that one could make a living from being just that, ‘opinionated’.
Since that time, it is Fiona’s ability to write in a way in that engages the reader that makes Exit’s books the success that they are today.
Australian by birth, Fiona is a long-term resident of the Netherlands.
She has recently become the proud owner of two puppies: a crazy Jack Russell called Katrina and a Coton de Tulear called Lulu. A lifelong dog lover, she adores them both.
