Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is facing calls from MPs and campaigners to bar euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, known as "Dr Death", from entering Britain to promote his new "suicide collar" device. Nitschke, also known for creating the Sarco suicide pod, plans to demonstrate the Kairos device at a London event on 5 September, just days before MPs vote again on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 11 September. Critics argue the visit is designed to influence the debate and warn it foreshadows how an assisted dying industry might develop if the law changes.

The Kairos collar uses two balloons that compress vital arteries to induce unconsciousness and death, which Nitschke has likened to a car airbag. He previously courted controversy in 2024 when a 64-year-old woman died using his Sarco pod in Switzerland, prompting several arrests, and he has said he intends to trial the collar on a woman in Switzerland. Legal academics say that if the revived Bill passes, allowing terminally ill adults in England and Wales with under six months to live to seek an assisted death via a "medical device", devices such as the Kairos collar or Sarco pod could become legally usable. The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.