Fiona Stewart is an Australian lawyer, sociologist, author, and former executive director of the pro-

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

group

Exit International Exit International is an international non-profit organisation advocating legalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It was previously known as the ''Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation'' (VERF Inc.). Exit International w ...

(2004-7). She is author of ''Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the road to the Peaceful Pill'' and co-author of ''

The Peaceful Pill Handbook ''The Peaceful Pill Handbook'' is a book that provides information on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Written by the Australian doctor Philip Nitschke and lawyer Fiona Stewart, it was originally published in the U.S. in 2006. A Germ ...

'', and is married to euthanasia advocate

Philip Nitschke Philip Haig Nitschke (; born 8 August 1947) is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Austral ...

Early life and education

Fiona Stewart was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and attended at

Lauriston Girls' School Lauriston Girls' School is a private, non-denominational, day school for girls, located in Armadale, an inner south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The school follows the motto; Sancte, Sapienter, Strenue. This motto is Latin ...

. She received her BA from

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in 1987 followed by a Graduate Diploma in Public Policy (

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

) in 1992, Master of Policy and Law (

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

) in 1994 and her Ph.D. in

health sciences The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences: Health sciences – those sciences that focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple a ...

from La Trobe in 1998. She graduated from

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with two campuses in Darwin and six satellite campuses in metropolitan and regional areas of the Northern Territory. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Ter ...

Law School in 2015. She earned a distinction for her honours research thesis on rational suicide and

testamentary capacity In the common law tradition, testamentary capacity is the legal term of art used to describe a person's legal and mental ability to make or alter a valid will. This concept has also been called sound mind and memory or disposing mind and memory ...

, which is "a person's legal and mental capacity to make a valid will".

Career

From 1997 to 1999 Stewart held a postdoctoral fellowship at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

for the study of "Womens Lives: Choice, Change and Identity". When her contract was not renewed, she turned to writing opinion columns for the media on

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. Stewart worked as an opinion writer for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'', and other Australian papers and media outlets, and as an online learning consultant with

Dale Spender Dale Spender (22 September 1943 – 21 November 2023) was an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant. In 1983, Dale Spender was co-founder of and editorial advisor to Pandora Press, the first of the feminist imprints devo ...

. In 2001, Stewart founded the consumer complaints website Notgoodenough.org, where she was active in promoting the consumer standpoint and criticising big businesses such as

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

, the national carrier. She has participated widely in Australian public debate on varied current affairs issues.

Euthanasia

Steward met euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke at the Brisbane Festival of Ideas in 2001 during the Late Night Live debate "There's no such thing as a new idea". She worked with Nitschke on ''The Peaceful Pill eHandbook'' and in

. She was executive director of the Exit International from 2004 to 2007. In the 2014 Victorian election she stood for the Upper House for the

Voluntary Euthanasia Party The Voluntary Euthanasia Party (VEP) was a minor political party in Australia, founded in early 2013 by Corey McCann to advocate for legislative change to allow voluntary euthanasia in Australia. The party's inception was strongly supported by Dr ...

Personal life

Stewart married Philip Nitschke around 2009.

Books

Stewart is the author of three books: * ''Internet Communication and Qualitative Research''; Sage, 2000 (With Dr Chris Mann) * ''Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the road to the Peaceful Pill''; Penguin, 2005 * ''The Peaceful Pill Handbook'' series

References