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January 2025

US film highlights concerns over Assisted Dying and its impact on people with disabilities

By | Recent News

A US film about assisted dying and the treatment of people with disabilities is set to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  Titled “Life After”, the feature documentary by Reid Davenport (who also has cerebral palsy) explores the story of Elizabeth Bouvia, a 26-year-old woman with cerebral palsy and arthritis, who in 1983 attempted to starve herself to death in a California hospital, citing that life wasn’t worth living. The legal battle that followed turned her into a public figure. A court ruled she did not have the right to die.

However, in 1986, a judge reversed the decision, but Bouvia chose to continue living, though she still preferred to die under different circumstances. She later lived with a live-in nurse in her own apartment until her death in 2014.

The filmmaker also heads to Canada to explore one of the world’s most aggressive assisted dying programs known as MAID (medical assistance in dying). Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which allows euthanasia for chronic illnesses or disabilities, has increased, and MAID is now the 5th leading cause of Canadian deaths. Davenport digs into the unprecedented rise in disabled people dying prematurely due to  MAID and speaks to advocates, patients and doctors who believe euthanasia saves healthcare costs. Davenport views this as a troubling factor in the rise of euthanasia. Davenport acknowledges that assisted dying, in theory, could be safe for terminally ill adults but believes it’s unsafe and risky in a neoliberal society where patients face significant social and economic pressures. Davenport worries that society encourages people with disabilities or chronic medical conditions to view life as not worth living.

The film director is cautious about his documentary being seen as cynical or alarmist by pro-euthanasia advocates and progressives. Davenport believes the issue of assisted dying is complex and that disability activists, not just conservatives, have valid concerns about the potential for abuse and the “slippery slope” argument. He notes that even if the slippery slope argument is seen as fear-mongering, there are instances where it is valid.

The film in varying confronts two powerful systems—the healthcare and bureaucratic systems—challenging their responsibility for overlooking how their shortcomings and policies may not be as effective as they seem. More importantly, Life After is a crucial exploration of the value of life itself.

Article source 

global rise in euthanasia

The troubling surge in assisted suicide

By | Latest News

The push to pass euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide laws over the past few years has seen a global rise and acceleration of various jurisdictions legalising and normalising assisted suicide.  New Zealand, Austria, and Spain all legalized it in 2021, with parts of Australia doing the same in 2022.  In  Italy, the first assisted suicide took place in 2022. And most recently, the United Kingdom, in late November last year, took the first step in passing a physician-assisted suicide measure that would open the door to the practice of allowing doctors to help people take their own lives.

France, Scotland, and Ireland are contemplating similar measures, as well as 19 other jurisdictions that have some form of physician-assisted suicide on the books. In the USA, 10 states and the District of Columbia have legislated physician-assisted suicide, with other states like Delaware, New York, and Maryland looking to secure similar laws.

In countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, where physician-assisted suicide has been legal for more than 10 years (in Belgium and the Netherlands since 2002), those eligible for death by a physician are not just the terminally ill, but those with “chronic, nonterminal, or treatment-refractory illness,” with treatment-refractory illnesses being those conditions that do not respond to treatment. Off growing concern is Canada, which has the most aggressive assisted suicide laws where MAID (medical assistance in dying) is now the fifth leading cause of Canadian deaths and access to MAID services are no longer confined to the terminally ill but can also apply to individuals who are homeless, feeling lonely after the death of a loved one or/and in despair.

In a day and age where there is a growing epidemic of loneliness and despair, we should not be encouraging a culture of death as the antidote to life and its challenges.

Source article

MEDIA RELEASE: Disturbing Data In Latest “Assisted Dying” Report

By | Media Releases

Disturbing Data In Latest “Assisted Dying” Report

Media Release: 5 September 2024

The latest review of assisted suicide / euthanasia was quietly released last month by the Ministry of Health – but it should sound significant and loud warning bells about the law, especially at a time when proponents want it to be liberalised even further.

Family First has analysed the Registrar (assisted dying) Annual Report June 2024. Key findings include:

  • 11.4% increase in assisted deaths in the last 12 months. [2022 66 (5 mnths), 2023 328, 2024 344]
  • 23.8% increase in applications.
  • 83% NZ European/Pākehā. Pasifika <0.5%. Māori <4%. Asian 2%. Other 12%.
  • 60% aged 65-84. 19% 85+. 19% 45-64.
  • Virtually even split between male and female.
  • 12% of applicants had a disability.
  • 258 applicants died before ‘needing’ euthanasia.
  • The application process averages only 16 days.
  • Less than 7% of applicants are for neurological conditions (such as Huntington’s Disease).


What is most disturbing is that one in four applicants weren’t receiving palliative care. The End of Life Choice Act only provides a ‘right’ to one choice – premature death. There is no corresponding right to palliative care. Good palliative care and hospice services are resource intensive; euthanasia would be cheaper. As has also been observed overseas, notably in Canada, there is a new element of ‘financial calculation’ into decisions about end-of-life care. This is harsh reality. At an individual level, the economically disadvantaged who don’t have access to better healthcare could feel pressured to end their lives because of the cost factor or because other better choices are not available to them. Some hospitals have no specialist palliative care services at all.

The NZ Herald recently reported: “A specialist paediatric palliative care (PPC) doctor says New Zealand is falling behind other nations in its care of terminally ill children and the Government must step up to help.” And the demand for this specialist medical care will only increase significantly in the near future. Our population is ageing, and therefore the number of people requiring palliative care is forecast to increase by approximately 25% over the next 15 years and will be more than double that by 2061.

Previous Governments have made little effort to address this growing problem and to increase funding for palliative care, and essential service. Euthanasia is instead given priority and full Government funding.

The other significant red flag in the report is that just 1% of applicants had a psychiatric assessment to check for both competence to make the decision, and for any presence of coercion. 99% of applicants were not assessed for these.

That so few patients are referred raises serious questions around the competency of doctors involved in euthanasia, and also implies either key psychological signs are being ignored – or missed.

Many patients who are facing death or battling an irreversible, debilitating disease are depressed at some point. However, many people with depression who request euthanasia overseas revoke that request if their depression and pain are satisfactorily treated. If euthanasia or assisted suicide is approved, many patients who would have otherwise traversed this dark, difficult phase and gone on to find meaning in their remaining months of life will die prematurely.

The unspoken reality is also that terminally ill people are vulnerable to direct and indirect pressure from family, caregivers and medical professionals, as well as self-imposed pressure. They may come to feel euthanasia would be ‘the right thing to do’; they’ve ‘had a good innings’ and do not want to be a ‘burden’ to their nearest and dearest. It is virtually impossible to detect subtle emotional coercion, let alone overt coercion, at the best of times.

This latest data simply confirms that nothing in the law guarantees the protection required for vulnerable people facing their death, including the disabled, elderly, depressed or anxious, and those who feel themselves to be a burden or who are under financial pressure.

Family First is also deeply concerned by comments by Associate Minister of Health David Seymour who is overseeing the review of the law. He recently stated on RNZ:

“The statutory review is being the Ministry of Health right now. I believe, without pre-empting what it will say, that it will give a lot of weight to making change.” 

It is deeply disturbing that a Minister would campaign and potentially unduly influence an independent review with this type of commentary.

It’s time we focused on and fully funded world-class palliative care – and not a lethal injection.

We can live without euthanasia.

DOWNLOAD OUR FACT SHEET ON THE LAW https://familyfirst.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Euthanasia-Fact-Sheet.pdf