Voluntary euthanasia campaigner plans to return to New Zealand

In February, the New Zealand Ministry of Health investigated a complaint by the Medical Council that Dr Nitschke was practicing without a licence.

He had run three workshops in New Zealand to inform people about their legal rights regarding euthanasia.

The council believed Dr Nitschke should have been registered as a doctor in New Zealand to run the workshops.

But the Health Ministry has now ruled there is insufficient evidence to support a prosecution.

Dr Nitschke says other touring lecturers are not asked to register as doctors and the move was an attempt to censor him.

"There is an issue of free speech here," he said.

"There is an issue of access to free information and of course, fundamentally, what does constitute practicing medicine?

"I mean when talking to people about medical issues is defined in such a tight way it really has the effect of imposing the dead hand of censorship on this whole end of life issue".