Shabana Mahmood urged to block controversial right-to-die campaigner dubbed 'Dr Death' from visiting Britain to promote new 'suicide collar' ahead of assisted dying vote

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 18:26 EDT, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 18:26 EDT, 3 September 2026 Shabana Mahmood has been urged to block a controversial right-to-die campaigner dubbed 'Dr Death' from visiting the UK to promote his new 'suicide collar' ahead of a vote on assisted dying.MPs and campaigners have called on the Home Secretary to prevent Dr Philip Nitschke from coming to the UK to demonstrate his Kairos suicide collar at an event in London on Saturday.The euthanasia campaigner – who is also behind the controversial Sarco suicide pod – has said that his macabre technology could come to the UK if Parliament votes to legalise assisted dying.His visit comes as MPs prepare for another assisted dying vote. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which ran out of time in Parliament's last session, is due back in the Commons on September 11.Dr Nitschke plans to bring his 'suicide collar' device to the UK to demonstrate it at a public event on September 5 – just six days before MPs vote on the revived Bill.However MPs and campaigners have called on Ms Mahmood to use her powers as Home Secretary to block him from the UK. Controversial right-to-die campaigner dubbed 'Dr Death', Dr Philip Nitschke, with his new invention, the Kairos 'suicide collar' Dr Nitschke lies down in a 'suicide pod' known as the Sarco in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2024Senior Tory MP Sir John Hayes said it is 'deeply disturbing' that Mr Nitschke plans to 'advertise his latest sinister suicide device in this country'.'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 said.'The planned event is also 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.'The Kairos suicide collar consists of two balloons that exert pressure on vital arteries, leading to unconsciousness and then death.'It works like an airbag in a car: press the button, it bangs, you pass out and die,' Dr Nitschke has said of the device. A model of the most recent Kairos 'suicide collar' A picture of the Sarco suicide pod, which can be operated internally and works by reducing oxygen levelsEarlier this year, 'Dr Death' said he would carry out the first assisted death using the collar on a woman in Switzerland who would be his first 'test subject'.Dr Nitschke caused controversy in 2024 when a 64-year-old woman used his Sarco suicide pod to end her life in the first case of its kind. Police in Switzerland arrested several people in September 2024 on suspicion of inciting, aiding and abetting suicide after the death.The revived assisted dying Bill would allow the use of a 'medical device' to enable patients to self-administer a lethal substance. Legal academics have confirmed that, if the Bill passes, it could be legal to use the Kairos collar or Sarco pod in an assisted death.The assisted dying Bill was first introduced in October 2024 but it fell automatically after running out of time at the end of the last parliamentary session.But it returned to Parliament after Labour MP Lauren Edwards placed second in a ballot that allows MPs to put forward their own policies and opted to adopt an almost identical version of the old Bill.It proposes allowing adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.The Home Office said it does not routinely comment on individual cases.