The Peaceful Pill is a pill or drink that provides a peaceful, pain-free death at a time of a person’s individual choosing; a pill that is orally ingested and available to ‘most’ people.
Dr Philip Nitschke
It was the late Dutch Supreme Court Judge Huib Drion who first called for the introduction of a Pill. In an opinion editorial in the prominent Dutch newspaper, NRC/Handelsblad, Drion openly bemoaned the fact that while his doctor friends knew what to do and how to access the right drugs for a peaceful death, as a lawyer he did not.
Drion questioned the logic of why he, a retired judge, should not have the same ready access to a dignified death as his doctor friends. According to Drion, all people over a certain age should have the right to die at a time of their choosing. A pill, he argued, would confer this right.