by Steven Ertelt

A radical euthanasia activist wants to bring a "death collar" to the UK if it legalizes assisted suicide.

Leading pro-life advocates are calling on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to block Philip Nitschke, the euthanasia campaigner known as "Dr. Death," from entering Britain to promote a new suicide collar days before a parliamentary vote on assisted suicide.

Nitschke plans to demonstrate the Kairos collar at a public event in London on September 5, six days before the House of Commons votes September 11 on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. And he would potentially sell the deadly device if the nation adopts assisted suicide.

Labour MP Lauren Edwards reintroduced the measure, which would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to request assisted death after approval by two doctors and an expert panel. Though pro-life groups understand those limits would quickly be abused or eliminated to push Canadian-style euthanasia.

Nitschke said the collar, which uses two balloons to press on vital arteries, "works like an airbag in a car: press the button, it bangs, you pass out and die." He carried out the first death with the device on a woman in Switzerland earlier this year.

Conservative MP Sir John Hayes described the planned visit as "deeply disturbing" and said Nitschke intends to "advertise his latest sinister suicide device in this country."

Hayes said: "I am calling on the Home Secretary to urgently review the wisdom of allowing Mr Nitschke into the country for this reason. We should not be promoting suicide."

He added that the event is "a sobering reminder of how an assisted suicide industry would likely emerge and be promoted should MPs vote next week to change the law in this area."

Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan, chief executive of Right To Life UK, said: "Just days before MPs vote on the assisted suicide Bill, Philip Nitschke plans to come to the UK to demonstrate his new ‘suicide collar’. We are calling on the Home Secretary to urgently intervene to prevent Mr Nitschke from entering the UK to demonstrate and promote this dangerous device."

Nitschke has also said he wants to introduce his Sarco suicide pod in Britain if the law changes.

Last year he stated: "As soon as we know that the final legislation is in place we’ll start enthusiastically pursuing the option of using the device in the UK. We’ll be looking to find UK-registered doctors to assist and of course someone who wants to use it and satisfies all of the requirements under the law."

The pod, which releases nitrogen gas, was used in its first death in 2024. Nitschke has promoted suicide devices for decades and once told a reporter that even troubled teens should have access to a "peaceful pill."

The Home Office said it does not routinely comment on individual cases. Opponents say the collar and pod promote and glamorize suicide and would open the door to a commercial death industry if assisted suicide is legalized.