An invitation allowing an expert on euthanasia to speak at Queen’s University has been withdrawn amid fears he could encourage suicide.

Dr Philip Nitschke has rejected allegations that he was encouraging vulnerable people to take their lives.

The Australian was scheduled to give a lecture at Queen’s in Belfast on Sunday.

A university spokeswoman said: “The Northern Ireland Forum for Ethics in Medicine and Healthcare has withdrawn its invitation to Dr Philip Nitschke to address Forum members in a forthcoming debate.

“The reported views of Dr Nitschke were not deemed appropriate for this event.”

Dr Nitschke has said he was offering people information to allow them to make choices in their best interest.

However, pro-euthanasia campaign group Dignity in Dying branded his advice irresponsible and illegal.

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee, said the doctors’ organisation didn’t support assisted dying.

“People should have the right to express strongly held views but there will be caveats to that. It depends on the vulnerability of people receiving the message.”

He said the lobby group recognised that there were tragic cases but maintained there were ways of using palliative care to assist people to die with dignity and the minimum of discomfort.

“Any kind of change in the law would risk vulnerable people being covertly coerced into taking their own lives or prematurely ending them for the benefit of relatives financially or because of the commitment to look after them,” he added.

DUP Assembly member Jimmy Spratt said Dr Nitschke openly espoused the idea of suicide.

He said it was expected he would provide information to students on how to put together a ‘suicide kit’.

“Such information can only be to the detriment of the audience and is extremely dangerous,” he added.

Euthanasia is illegal in the UK.

Workshops across Britain have already cancelled talks from Dr Nitschke.

Several attempts to legalise assisted suicide in Britain have been rejected.

In 2001 Diane Pretty, who had motor neurone disease, failed to get immunity from prosecution for her husband if he helped her to die in the UK.

Multiple sclerosis sufferer, Debbie Purdy (45) from Bradford, is considering going to Switzerland where assisted suicide is legal, if her pain gets unbearable. She is fighting a High Court case because she fears her husband could be prosecuted if he helps her die.