from Sydney Morning Herald online version
A "hard hitting" pro-euthanasia campaign will soon appear on television screens and billboards across Australia.
Dr Philip Nitschke, an advocate of assisted suicide, said the campaign was an Australian first and it was hoped to provoke private introspection as well as a public debate.
"I think its about time we saw increasing pressure being put on the political process to stop sidelining this issue," Dr Nitschke told AAP on Tuesday.
"... If we can engage in some mainstream activities in terms of getting a broad public movement of support, then politicians won't feel as though they are acting in a bizarre way if they were to engage with this issue."
The ads will air on late-night television from Sunday starting in Brisbane with Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to follow.
Related billboards will also go up "in prominent places around Australia" in a total $60,000 advertising spend.
Dr Nitschke said he was inspired by the ABC Television's spoof marketing program The Gruen Transfer, which recently aired two fake advertisements making a fictional call for mandatory euthanasia.
"We turned it over to the company The Works following their pretty stunning episode in the Gruen Transfer," Dr Nitschke said.
"We were so impressed by what they did we asked them what they thought (about a serious campaign).
"I watched them filming yesterday and I was pretty taken with it ... It's a hard hitting message."
The advertisement portrays an elderly, terminally ill man looking back on the decisions he had made.
Dr Nitschke said he would emphasise how a person had freedom of choice through their life, but not at the end of it.
"He ends up staring into the camera and that message is addressed to politicians - `Why won't you give me this choice?`," Dr Nitschke said.
The campaign was mostly funded by a bequest sent to Dr Nitschke's group Exit International from India.
He said Exit International would undertake related advertising, and also work towards establishing a branch, in India.
"If people want to take strong exception, and rant about it, in a sense that is not necessarily going to do us any harm," Dr Nitschke also said.
"It will get a broader group of people considering the issue and, by and large, the more it is discussed the more common sense prevails."
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