The push is on to expand the euthanasia law. We knew it was coming. We knew it was coming when the law was first passed. The slippery slope. But we were told by politicians, the media and the supporters of euthanasia “oh don’t be silly, there’s no slippery slope.” It’s taken them less than three years to prove us right.
Research has revealed that people with autism and intellectual disabilities have been legally euthanised in the Netherlands as part of that country’s assisted-dying program.
Euthanasia became legal in Canada in 2016. If we want to see where New Zealand could be headed , then looking at the trend of Canada’s experiment is a good place to start. And as expected, it’s not pretty.
So what happens when you combine disability, cost and euthanasia. You only need to look at Canada to see where we may be headed, and the real threat to disabled people.
An expansion of the criteria for medically assisted death comes into force in March 2024 will allow Canadians like Pauli, aged 47, who battles anorexia and whose sole underlying condition is mental illness, to choose medically assisted death.
Patients who request assisted dying are at a higher risk of suicidal thoughts, Dr Cheung told a GP CME audience in Rotorua last month. The time following a declined assisted dying application is one of heightened mental health risk, says the psychiatrist and University of Auckland senior lecturer.
When a newly-permitted activity such as euthanasia is characterised as a ‘human right’, the overseas experience is that there is an inevitable push to extend such a ‘right’ to a greater number of people.
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