How do we do this?
Improve law
Improving law by advocating for the amending of risks identified in the End of Life Choice Act.
Support people
Supporting vulnerable New Zealanders, their families, medical practitioners and communities.
Inform culture
Informing culture through education, media and detecting abuse, coercion or expansion.
Six to Fix
Improve the End of Life Choice Act
Six amendments would drastically improve public safety. We recommend Parliament make these crucial fixes:
FIX 1 Require an independent witness
FIX 2 Require a formal coercion assessment
FIX 3 Require a mental health assessment
FIX 4 Require a mandatory cooling-off period
FIX 5 Require a competency test on day of death
FIX 6 Require detailed reporting
Add your name to the Petition
1,566 people have signed so far. Help us reach 2,000!
Need support?
Who can I talk to if I feel unsafe?
We provide a confidential support service
If you’re struggling from a sense of pressure, have a lack of support, need some safe advice or feel hopeless – we’re here.
Have you had a bad experience?
Any abuse must be reported and stopped
Have you witnessed or experienced poor practice? Let us confidentially help to investigate and advocate.
Read our informative guides
How do I support someone facing death?
Caring for people with terminal illness and those around them
Compassion is helping carry a load. Supporting people walking through the process of dying enables them to take this final journey with dignity and meaning. This ensures we all get the healthy closure that only comes from a good death.
What is good palliative care?
A medical speciality committed to caring for the dying
Getting appropriate end-of-life palliative care is essential. It’s something every Kiwi should know about, and have available to them. This holistic medical approach enlists the help of teams of specialists to ensure the best possible natural death.
What does dying actually look like?
Becoming familiar with something we all have to face
Death is one of the only guarantees in life – yet it’s something we avoid thinking and talking about. This evasion of reality is often fuelled by fear... fear of the unknown, the uncontrollable, and the mysterious. One of the best ways of overcoming this fear is to get informed.
Are there risks to the terminally ill?
A blunt instrument targeting those facing death?
Eligibility makes terminal patients the most at-risk group of legislation-backfire. Wrongful deaths are inevitable because this law fails to address misdiagnosis, inaccurate prognosis, lack of good healthcare, and the psychological and emotional challenges faced during every end-of-life journey.
Are there risks to the elderly?
Feeling like a burden, and being coerced: an undercurrent to death
Ableism, ageism, and elderly abuse equal a dangerous landscape to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia into. The sense of being a burden is one of the top three reasons for choosing these options internationally. Will this dangerous phenomenon now raise its ugly head in New Zealand?
Are there risks to those with disabilities?
The wavering line between disabled and terminal
With an existing dysfunctional healthcare system and a troubling sense of being a burden on society; this law increases the underlying and unhealthy social pressures on those with disabilities.
What does international evidence show us?
Overseas patterns paint a grim reality
Those in favour of this law paint a rosy picture of the international scene due to their support for legalised euthanasia and assisted suicide. But is this an accurate reading of international data and evidence; or are they merely interpreting things this way because they are cherry-picking facts?
What has changed from 7 November 2021?
What does it mean for New Zealand?
The impact and application will have a ripple effect. We have become one of a small number of jurisdictions to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia internationally. Are we truly ready for what comes next?
How did we get here?
The controversial history to a deadly future
The bill that banked on fear, emotion and ignorance, not sense or science. Learn how it broke records and bent rules to become law.
What is the End of Life Choice Act?
Knowing the basics of the new law
The End of Life Choice Act is presented as well-drafted and safe – but in reality it has some major flaws that leave it wide open to abuse.
News
From tracking headlines across national media platforms, to providing commentary, context and balance – get informed of the latest news, stories and views with New Zealand’s only exclusive assisted suicide and euthanasia news platform.
Featured
News Tips
Do you have a story about terminal illness, abuse, euthanasia, assisted suicide or end-of-life care that you think we should know about? Confidentially send us your news tip today.
By The Defender. Talks of expanding the eligibility criteria in assisted suicide and euthanasia legislation have been met with strong caution by Royal College of GPs medical director Dr Bryan Betty. The contrast and imbalance of palliative care vs assisted suicide and euthanasia is sizeable and cause for concern, he says.