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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.
Read MoreBy The Defender. Media coverage of the assisted suicide and euthanasia anniversary last week has made it clear there’s been an unfettering of any tether to balance and fairness on the issue. It’s been a week of “celebration” for the first anniversary of the End of Life Choice Act operating in our country and the media stories by Stuff and NZ Herald have been shocking.
Read MoreBy The Defender. One year on. This week marks an anniversary not to be forgotten; but also not to be celebrated. It is one year since the End of Life Choice Act has been operational in New Zealand. We have lost more than 214 lives to assisted suicide and euthanasia as a result. And tragically, more than 596 people have applied for access to the lethal dose.
Read MoreBy Henoch Kloosterboer. With the welcome departure of former Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard, there’s been a lot of talk about the public scandals that have plagued his tenure. There is one very serious incident, however, that you probably aren’t aware of – that #DefendNZ were one of the first victims of Trevor Mallard’s authoritarian excesses at Parliament.
Read MoreBy The Defender. It has now been almost ten months since the practice of assisted suicide and euthanasia began in our country, and recently the first official reports were published detailing what has happened in New Zealand over that period. Significant issues identified include a lack of detailed reporting, lack of palliative care uptake, misleading New Zealanders and much more.
Read MoreBy The Defender. A recent article investigated what it described as the “mess” of palliative care. Timaru woman, Jackie Goodfellow, whose husband Ron had recently died from terminal lung cancer, had an experience that mirrors many in New Zealand. Supports are simply not accessible.
Read MoreBy The Defender. With the number of Kiwis needing palliative care expected to increase by 51% by 2038 according to a Ministry of Health report from 2016, and services barely keeping up, New Zealanders will be put at risk. This, in the context of the already complicated era of legalised euthanasia, only deepens the divide and false 'choice' it presents.
Read MoreBy Guest Contributor, Alex Penk. Alex interviewed an expert, Professor Roderick MacLeod, to make sense of the latest euthanasia statistics and untangle the advocates' claims.
Read MoreBy The Defender. Switzerland, the jurisdiction with the longest-standing legislation allowing for assisted suicide, has in recent years come increasingly under pressure to further liberalise its laws. However, the Swiss Medical Association has clarified its attitude toward assisted suicide – and it is very restrictive.
Read MoreBy The Defender. In Canada, like New Zealand, the conversation of euthanasia and assisted suicide started by highlighting situations of it being used as a “last resort”. The goalposts have shifted rapidly in Canada. Canada is now on track to expand eligibility for euthanasia to people with mental illness after their expert panel released its final report on the topic recently.
Read MoreBy The Defender. A new peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, reveals that current data from European countries shows increases in suicide rates, when compared to suicide rates from countries who do not have assisted suicide or euthanasia available, debunking claims that legalising ‘assisted dying’ would reduce non-assisted suicides.
Read MoreBy The Defender. "One woman's brave story..." was the opening statement to TVNZ's Sunday programme advertisement for Esther's Story on May 15. That assertion made it clear from the start what angle the segment would take on Esther Richard's euthanasia stance... What it really should have said was "one woman's tragic story".
Read MoreBy The Defender. “There are a number of significant concerns that have already been highlighted in the reporting made available by the Ministry of Health this week. Vulnerable New Zealanders are clearly already being put at risk due to the inferior legislation. We can, and must, do better” says #DefendNZ spokesperson, Henoch Kloosterboer.
Read MoreBy The Defender. If you’ve been following #DefendNZ for a while now, you’ll know that late last year we sent an important Official Information Act request (OIA) to the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MOH). What this so-called ‘fact check’ has actually done is to create a misleading sense of ‘nothing-to-see-here’ about the issue of COVID-19 patients and their eligibility for euthanasia in New Zealand.
Read MoreBy The Defender. An Official Information Act reply to The Defender, from the Ministry of Health, which says that patients with COVID-19 could be eligible for euthanasia, has left National MP Simon O’Connor disappointed but not surprised. When we put this matter to National MP Simon O’Connor, he expressed concerns about what clearly seems to be an expansion of the new law less than a month after it came into force.
Read MoreBy The Defender. 21.5% of disabled adults were not able to visit a GP due to costs, compared to just 12.7% of non-disabled adults. Disabled adults are 2.3 times more likely not to be able to afford a doctor's visit. This alarming inequity echoes what #DefendNZ ambassador Dr Huhana Hickey forewarned before the End of Life Choice Act was passed.
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