Fiona Stewart (author)
Australian author and activist
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Fiona Stewart is an Australian author and was the executive director of Exit International – an organisation which advocates for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide – from 2004 to 2007. She is co-author with her husband, euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, of two books about euthanasia. She now vets people for eligibility to join Exit, calling herself "the door bitch".[1]
La Trobe University (M.A., Ph.D.)
CDU (LL.B)
Fiona J. Stewart | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 May 1966 Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation | Author |
| Education | Monash University (B.A.) La Trobe University (M.A., Ph.D.) CDU (LL.B) |
| Subject | Generation X, Feminism, Human sexuality |
| Spouse | Philip Nitschke |
| Website | |
| Exit International | |
Early life and education
Fiona Stewart was born in Melbourne[2] and attended at Lauriston Girls' School.[3]
She received her BA from Monash University in 1987 followed by a Graduate Diploma in Public Policy (Melbourne University) in 1992, Master of Policy and Law (La Trobe University) in 1994[citation needed] and her Ph.D. in health sciences from La Trobe[4] in 1998.[citation needed]
She graduated from Charles Darwin University Law School[4] in 2015.[citation needed] She earned a distinction for her honours research thesis on rational suicide and testamentary capacity, which is "a person's legal and mental capacity to make a valid will".[4]
Career
Stewart authored a series of papers on feminism, gender and human sexuality in the 1990s.[5][6][7] She then changed to writing opinion columns for the media on Generation X and feminism.[8]
Stewart worked as an opinion writer for The Age, The Australian, and other Australian papers and media outlets,[9][10] and as an online learning consultant with Dale Spender.[11][12]
In 2002, Stewart founded the short-lived consumer complaints website Notgoodenough.org,[13][14] where she was active in promoting the consumer standpoint and criticising big businesses such as Telstra, the national carrier.[15]
She has participated widely in Australian public debate on varied current affairs issues.[8][16]
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".[17]
She worked with Nitschke on The Peaceful Pill eHandbook and in Exit International.[4] She was executive director of the Exit International from 2004 to 2007.[citation needed]
In the 2014 Victorian election she stood for the Upper House for the Voluntary Euthanasia Party but was not elected, with the party receiving only 0.49% of first preference votes.[18][19]
Personal life
Stewart married Philip Nitschke around 2009.[4]
Books
Stewart is the co-author of three books:
- Internet Communication and Qualitative Research, A Handbook for Researching Online; Sage, 2000 (With Dr Chris Mann)[20]
- Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the road to the Peaceful Pill; Penguin, 2005
- The Peaceful Pill Handbook series