Stuff co.nz 14 December 2018
Family First Comment: David Seymour 1st Rdg:
“There are those in Parl’t who say its worst bill they’ve encountered. I’ve challenged them privately, they know they couldn’t name better one. This bill’s been in public domain since Sep 2015, no critic has laid glove on any aspect..”
Whoops!

Significant changes to the End of Life Choice Bill have been proposed by Act MP David Seymour.

The bill’s strongest supporter in Parliament has suggested limiting legalised euthanasia solely to cases of terminal illness.

He has sought to exclude mental illness and disability from the bill’s provisions, send it to public referendum, and incorporate aspects of a palliative care bill drafted by his loudest critic, National MP Maggie Barry.

Seymour’s concessions are a bid to earn votes from his parliamentary colleagues and allay concerns among the 37,000 who submitted on the End of Life Choice Bill.

The suggested narrowing has drawn both praise and ire – often in equal measure – from advocates and opponents of the prospective law.

The proposed alterations had been met with intrigue by some anti-euthanasia groups including Family First NZ and Right to Life, with Family First national director Bob McCoskrie urging politicians to “move on”.

“[Seymour’s] latest statements should be an indication to politicians that they should give New Zealanders a real Christmas present and move on from the current political push for assisted suicide, and focus on what New Zealanders really need and want – a focus on providing the very best palliative care and support for vulnerable people.”
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/109351644/significant-changes-to-end-of-life-choice-bill-proposed-by-david-seymour

Euthanasia: Lobbyists say David Seymour’s backing down, but is he?
NewsHub 14 December 2018 
Despite lobby groups claiming David Seymour is backing down from his euthanasia bill, he told Newshub he’s more determined than ever to see it become law.
“I’m more in favour of it than ever. I’ve championed this for three years,” he said.

That’s despite National Director of Family First New Zealand Bob McCoskrie claiming Mr Seymour has conceded to his opponents and is backing down from his bill.

“Family First NZ is welcoming ACT MP David Seymour’s significant backdowns on his assisted suicide bill, and says that this indicates just how weak and flawed the bill is,” Mr McCoskrie said on Friday.

Even pro-life group Right to Life New Zealand said it was “delighted that David Seymour has now recognised that the majority of Members of Parliament are opposed to his [bill]”.
But that’s rubbish, according to Mr Seymour, who told Newshub it’s an “absolutely bizarre reaction” from both lobby groups.

He said anyone who’s questioning his commitment to his End of Life Choice Bill is “clearly not really involved in politics because they don’t know much about it – or they may have nefarious motivations.”

The aim of his bill is to legalise voluntary euthanasia in certain circumstances. The explanatory notes say the bill gives “people with a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition the option of requesting assisted dying”.

Mr McCoskrie says there’s been “overwhelming opposition to David Seymour’s assisted suicide bill by submitters to the Select Committee”.

According to an analysis of a number of the submissions by the Care Alliance, 92 percent of submissions are against Mr Seymour’s bill.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/euthanasia-lobbyists-say-david-seymour-s-backing-down-but-is-he.html

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icare December 2018
Family First Comment: icare represents a commitment to excellent care to enable good living and good dying. icare is the Care Alliance’s major information campaign featuring short videos of 20 New Zealanders who share their disability, palliative care, medical and legal perspectives highlighting the risks and fallacies of the End of Life Choice Bill.
WATCH THE VIDEO CLIPS HERE https://carealliance.org.nz/icare/
#committedtocare

Like an umbrella, good care shelters a person in adverse conditions, enabling a journey from one place to another that can be shared with others.

icare represents a commitment to excellent care to enable good living and good dying. icare is the Care Alliance’s major information campaign featuring short videos of 20 New Zealanders who share their disability, palliative care, medical and legal perspectives highlighting the risks and fallacies of the End of Life Choice Bill.

WATCH THE VIDEO CLIPS HERE https://carealliance.org.nz/icare/

NewsTalk ZB 11 December 2018
Family First Comment: “92% of submissions are against it, UP from 77% during the Health Select Committee’s earlier investigation”!
Once people consider the issue in depth, the opposition is overwhelming.
www.Protect.org.nz

An analysis of public submissions on the End of Life Choice Bill has found a growing number of Kiwis against euthanasia.

A team of volunteers from the Care Alliance, who oppose the bill, have analysed more than 20,000 of the record-breaking 36,000 submissions received.

Secretary Peter Thirkell says their preliminary analysis shows 92 percent of submissions are against it, up from 77 percent during the Health Select Committee’s earlier investigation

“The thing that strikes you is that these are just regular Kiwis for the most part saying what’s important to them. Overwhelmingly, people are quite fearful about
the broader social implications of this bill. That comes through strongly.”

Thirkell says many are concerned about vulnerable people who could be influenced one way or another.

One Christchurch palliative care doctor says she doesn’t support legalising euthanasia.

Doctor Amanda Landers was the former chair of the Kiwi branch of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine.

She says she had to speak to the initial Health Select Committee when the bill was in its infancy and what she learned concerned her.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/lobby-group-claims-most-new-zealanders-against-euthanasia/

Stuff co.nz 5 December 2018
Family First Comment: Dr Huhana Hickey, who has multiple sclerosis, is one of many who consider the bill unsafe for the disabled, elderly, and the “easy targets for unscrupulous people”. 
#RejectAssistedSuicide 
www.Protect.org.nz

New Zealand is facing a question of life and death. After taking in the nation’s views on legalised euthanasia, the largest-ever parliamentary tour ended in November. Now, Stuff is laying out the arguments and telling the compelling stories surrounding the End of Life Choice bill.

Armed with alarming anecdotes and evidence from overseas jurisdictions, many arguments for legalising assisted death fall on either side of a divide.

It’s a narrow path to escape a painful death; or a “slippery slope” towards broadly sanctioned killing. But how does the End of Life Choice bill compare?

Dr Huhana Hickey, who has multiple sclerosis, is one of many who consider the bill unsafe for the disabled, elderly, and the “easy targets for unscrupulous people”.

“How do we know that we’re going to keep people who don’t want to be euthanised safe?”

It’s the permissive laws of the Netherland and Belgium, which permit euthanasia of minors and infants, that has Hickey most concerned.

“You can put all the safety measures in place, but the laws have a way of changing over time.

“Once you legislate it, you open the door to amendments, alterations, and the bill becoming, basically, an absolute farce in the end.”

Netherlands and Belgium have liberalised since passing law in 2002, after decades of permitting medically-assisted euthanasia.

Though liberalisation hasn’t happened everywhere. US-state Oregon legalised euthanasia strictly for cases of terminal illness in 1998, and hasn’t changed since. Advocacy to include irremediable conditions is now starting to gain traction two decades later.

The End of Life Choice bill permits assisted dying in a manner similar to Oregon, Canada, and Victoria, Australia – all stricter than European regimes.

Yet Hickey sees demonstrable risks. Belgian prosecutors are now conducting the first criminal investigation into a euthanasia case of a women with autism in 2010.
READ MORE:  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/109071343/what-it-will-take-to-die-setting-a-straight-path-down-the-slippery-slope

Stuff co.nz 3 December 2018
Family First Comment:  For Dr Ian Gwynne-Robson, medical director of Te Omanga Hospice in Lower Hutt, the idea of having to kill someone flies in the face of the medical commandment “first, do no harm”. That’s why, since the End of Life Choice Bill was introduced, he has been a vocal opponent. 
www.Protect.org.nz

As debate rages about whether euthanasia should be legalised, a palliative care expert is urging MPs to spare a thought for doctors who would have to carry out the act.

For Dr Ian Gwynne-Robson, medical director of Te Omanga Hospice in Lower Hutt, the idea of having to kill someone flies in the face of the medical commandment “first, do no harm”. That’s why, since the End of Life Choice Bill was introduced, he has been a vocal opponent.

He says he is acting as a voice of the patients whom the legislation is most likely to affect.

“[When] you’re given a diagnosis of terminal illness, you’re a vulnerable person … All patients referred to me are vulnerable, and it’s my job as a palliative care doctor to advocate for those patients and for their protection.

“Those people are sick, they clearly have other priorities.”

Gwynne-Robson has heard plenty of momentary requests to die.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/108717999/Euthanasia-debate-Is-there-dignity-in-death-or-does-palliative-care-kill

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