Monthly Archives

April 2021

Only 10 percent of health workers ‘definitely willing’ to carry out euthanasia – survey

By | Recent News

Radio NZ News 22 April 2021
Family First Comment: No surprises in this. It’s a bit like very few doctors wanting to perform abortions. Medical professionals never entered the profession to kill people.
“The demand for assisted dying will have to be met by a workforce overwhelmingly opposed to being involved and a health system some doctors say is already struggling with a lack of resources. Only 10% of health practitioners described themselves as “definitely willing” to provide assisted dying with a further 20% saying they are “possibly willing,” according to a Ministry of Health workforce survey.”

More than a 1000 people are expected to request to end their lives in the first year of New Zealand’s assisted dying regime.

Chief medical officer Andrew Connolly said the Ministry of Health was expecting about 1100 patients to make the request, although it was predicting only about a third of those would carry through with euthanasia.

The demand for assisted dying will have to be met by a workforce overwhelmingly opposed to being involved and a health system some doctors say is already struggling with a lack of resources.

Only 10 percent of health practitioners described themselves as “definitely willing” to provide assisted dying with a further 20 percent saying they are “possibly willing,” according to a Ministry of Health workforce survey.

The lack of doctors willing to carry out assisted dying may lead to those doctors who are willing to have to travel the country administering euthanasia if the service is not available in all areas.

Connolly said having a ready and willing workforce was the biggest challenge to setting up the assisted dying regime, which comes in on 7 November.

The Ministry of Health initially said its survey of nearly 2000 health practitioners showed 30 percent were definitely or possibly willing – a number the Minister of Health Andrew Little said gave him confidence the workforce to deliver euthanasia would be available.

But the breakdown now provided to RNZ describes a less enthusiastic workforce, with just 10 percent saying they were “definitely” willing and a further 20 percent saying they were “possibly” willing.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/440976/only-10-percent-of-health-workers-definitely-willing-to-carry-out-euthanasia-survey
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Distressing death warning for ‘unregulated’ euthanasia drugs

By | Recent News

Radio NZ News 20 April 2021
Family First Comment: Here comes a flawed dangerous regime with unintended adverse consequences (which the public weren’t fully informed about)…
“There have been concerns expressed internationally over … the concoction of medication that is used, that in some cases, has led to traumatic end of life experiences,” 

Patients requesting euthanasia will be given unapproved, unregulated and “off label” medicines, sparking warnings of prolonged and distressing deaths.

People who chose to swallow or ingest the fatal medicines, rather than taking them intravenously, would be given drugs that were compounded (mixed up) by a pharmacist and provided to the patient without being approved by regulator Medsafe.

The Ministry of Health said those who opted for an injection would be given drugs which had been approved by Medsafe but for a different purpose – so the medicines will be provided for an unapproved, or “off label”, use.

Hundreds of pages of documentation, much of it heavily redacted, has been released under the Official Information Act to RNZ as part of an investigation into how prepared New Zealand is to introduce assisted dying.

Among the documents is an email from Dr Bryan Betty, medical director at the Royal New Zealand College of GPs, warning that mixing concoctions of drugs had led to traumatic deaths.

Dr Betty’s warning to the Ministry of Health used the example of American states not being able to access death penalty drugs due to cost and availability.

“So they made up their own concoctions initially, with examples of prolonged processes until fine-tuned. Belgium had a standard process but (this was) not used by many doctors for some years, also resulting in prolonged, distressing deaths.”

Betty said it was important to develop strong guidelines to avoid these situations.

“There have been concerns expressed internationally over … the concoction of medication that is used, that in some cases, has led to traumatic end of life experiences,” he said.

“I think we need to mitigate those risks upfront and be very prescriptive about what could be used and an end of life situation,” he said.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/440824/distressing-death-warning-for-unregulated-euthanasia-drugs
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Government agrees people with mental illness should have access to euthanasia (Canada)

By | Recent News, Videos

The Canadian Press 23 February 2021
Family First Comment: No slippery slope?
Dream on.

The Trudeau government has agreed with the Senate that Canadians suffering solely from grievous and irremediable mental illnesses should be entitled to receive medical assistance in dying — but not for another two years.

The two-year interlude is six months longer than what was proposed by senators.

It is one of a number of changes to Bill C-7 proposed by the government in response to amendments approved last week by the Senate.

The government has rejected another Senate amendment that would have allowed people who fear being diagnosed with dementia or other cognitive-impairing conditions to make advance requests for an assisted death.

It has also rejected one other amendment and modified two others in a motion that was debated Tuesday in the House of Commons.

Justice Minister David Lametti told the Commons he believes the response to the Senate amendments is “fair and realistic.”
READ MORE: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/government-agrees-people-with-mental-illness-should-have-access-to-maid-%E2%80%94-in-2-years/ar-BB1dW37m

This is video three of a series of messages directed at jurisdictions debating the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Consider Canada’s experience.

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, speaks about the Truchon decision (2019) and Bill C-7 (passed into law on March 17, 2021) and how they changed the euthanasia law.

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