Australia bans pro-euthanasia TV advert

Exit International advert features an actor playing a man with a terminal illness asking to be allowed die with dignity

Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International, said his group would relaunch a new version of the ad within days. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Australia has banned a television advert arguing for euthanasia, featuring an actor playing a man with a terminal illness asking to be allowed die with dignity.

The advert was made by the lobby group Exit International to relaunch the debate in Australia on the right to die, 14 years after the Northern Territory government became the first in the world to introduce a voluntary euthanasia law, only to see it overturned by the federal authorities.

The last time a similar advert was shown on Australian television was more than 10 years ago. It featured a woman suffering from what she believed was terminal bladder cancer pleading to be allowed to die. Her disease went into remission and the case became a rallying cry for the anti-euthanasia lobby.

In the new advert, which has been banned by the broadcasting regulators on the grounds that it promotes suicide, which is illegal, the man argues: "I chose to marry Tina, have two great kids. I chose to always drive a Ford. What I didn't choose was being terminally ill. I didn't choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades.

"And I certainly didn't choose to have to watch my family go through it with me. I've made my final choice. I just need the government to listen."

Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International, told the Age the ban violated the right to free speech, and said his group would relaunch a new version of the ad within days.

The right to die has become the subject of agonised debate in many countries. In the UK, terminally ill Diane Pretty sought legal assurance that her husband would not be prosecuted for helping her to die.

An increasing number of individuals are circumventing local laws by travelling to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where they are given medical advice and assistance to commit suicide, which is legal under Swiss law. This month, two people were arrested for accompanying a disabled man who lived in a Tyneside care home to the Zurich clinic.