Media Release 23 November 2017
Family First NZ says that Victoria has gone against the worldwide trend and introduced a flawed and dangerous assisted suicide law – a week after the New South Wales upper house voted down a similar bill.
“Victoria is well known for its extremist laws, including its extreme abortion law which allows abortion on demand right up to birth. Ironically, Victoria’s euthanasia law has come under attack from a euthanasia supporter Philip Nitschke who believes in suicide as a human right and said that Victoria’s bill was the “world’s most unworkable end-of-life law” and that it was not going to change the growing demand by elderly people to suicide as a right,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“Safe euthanasia is a myth. Victoria’s 68 ‘safeguards’ will not provide any comfort. NSW Labour health spokesman Walt Secord said, during the NSW debate, “I have not yet seen it possible to develop adequate legislative safeguards to protect people from the misuse of these laws. I have not yet seen a legislative model in this area that cannot be exploited or manipulated. And I cannot support any gaps for exploitation when the consequences are so final.” New South Wales political leaders have realised this and voted accordingly, and New Zealand politicians should do likewise.”
Rejection of assisted suicide has been dominant throughout the world. An analysis of attempts in the USA to allow assisted suicide reveal an overwhelming failure rate associated with such legislation: fewer than 1% of all assisted suicide bills become law. Just this year, 46 bills to legalise assisted suicide in 27 states have been defeated, despite proponents of assisted suicide spending heavily. Between 2015-2017, legislation was also defeated in Scotland, United Kingdom, South Australia and Tasmania, with the only successes coming in Canada, and the three US states of California, Colorado and Washington, DC.
“The government report released earlier this year as a result of the Inquiry in NZ revealed that the level of opposition to euthanasia is no anomaly, and explains why a select committee comprising both proponents and opponents of assisted suicide could not endorse any change to the law.”
“It is time for New Zealand and David Seymour to move on from the current political push for assisted suicide, and to focus on what New Zealanders really need and want – a focus on providing the very best palliative care and support for vulnerable people, whether they are at the end of their life, or momentarily wishing they were at the end of their life.”
ENDS
