Recent News

NZ Herald 19 May 2018
Family First Comment: “The reason is not because I’m pig-headed or because I don’t have any empathy for those who are in difficult situations. We don’t need it; if you talk to the bulk of our palliative care positions they will tell you they can manage even the most difficult illness or disability.”
www.protect.org.nz

A retired professor with more than four decades of medical practice as a geriatrician and terminal care manager says he has grave concerns for the future if voluntary euthanasia is legalised.

Dr David Richmond, professor emeritus of geriatric medicine at the University of Auckland and founder of the HOPE Foundation for Research on Ageing, said he would never support medically assisted dying, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

“The reason is not because I’m pig-headed or because I don’t have any empathy for those who are in difficult situations.

“We don’t need it; if you talk to the bulk of our palliative care positions they will tell you they can manage even the most difficult illness or disability.”

Richmond said proponents were failing to take responsibility for the long term issues associated with medically assisted death.

“Although within the first year of legalising euthanasia it may be looked at as being okay with no problems, by the time you get to eight to 10 years out it begins to create the most horrendous problems, not only to the medical profession but society as a whole.”

His biggest concern was that doctors and nurses would become too relaxed about the due processes in place and end the lives of those who either didn’t want euthanasia or weren’t eligible.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=12052785

TVNZ One News 11 May 2018
Family First Comment: Good decision. Assisting suicide should always be a crime.
www.Protect.org.nz

The woman who was put on trial for the assisted suicide of her friend has today been sentenced for providing the drugs she used to take her life.

Susan Austen was found not guilty for aiding the suicide of Anne Marie Treadwell, but was found guilty for importing the Class C drug Pentobarbital at a trial in February.

The Sydney Morning Herald 10 May 2018
Family First Comment: How ironic. At the bottom of this disturbing article is this statement…
“Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline…”
Apparently some suicides are okay. Apparently.
www.rejectassistedsuicide.nz

Australian scientist David Goodall has ended his life at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland, asking in his final words: “Why is this taking so long?”

The 104-year old had to answer twice the four questions – what is your name, what is your date of birth, why have you come to the clinic and do you know what will happen when you press this button? – that are asked of anyone seeking to undergo voluntary euthanasia because, due to his arthritis, he was unable to press the button to release the deadly injection on his first attempt.

Euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, who revealed he acted as “music director” during the Professor Goodall’s death in Switzerland, said the Australian’s final words were said “flippantly” and impatiently as if to hurry death.

In a “final day press release” which included new photographs of Professor Goodall’s final hours, the prominent euthanasia campaigner said he was “proud to have been appointed ‘music director'”.

“David’s chosen music was the Ode to Joy of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. David died at the moment the Song (sung in German) concluded,” the statement said.
READ MORE: https://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-scientist-david-goodall-dies-after-lethal-injection-20180510-p4zem6.html

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.

NZ Herald 7 May 2018
Family First Comment: Excellent op-ed from Simon O’Connor
“Seymour must be convinced that no one will ever be coerced into dying for the convenience or financial gain of another. He obviously believes no one in his family would ever encourage someone to end their life early so that the will could be read that much sooner. Indeed, it is tempting to think that of all families in New Zealand. However, we know that elder abuse is rampant, and that seniors, the sick, and the disabled are already marginalised in our society. Many feel unvalued and unwelcome, either through the deliberate actions of others or because of a prevalent unconscious bias. In the face of these and other concerns, it is unfortunate that Seymour has dismissed anyone not wholeheartedly supporting him as “fearmongering”. This is an injustice to the issue, to those who disagree with him, and to his own bill.”
www.rejectassistedsuicide.nz

A few weeks ago David Seymour dismissed tens of thousands of New Zealanders who wrote to Parliament with their concerns about his End of Life Choice bill.

Submissions on his bill, which allows for euthanasia or assisted dying, have barely closed and he has already stated he doesn’t care what people have to say.

Armed with a handful of polls that assure him of just how right he thinks he is on this issue, he has decided Parliament no longer needs to think for itself.

The problem with relying on public polling to decide serious, complex social issues is that it inherently reduces the issue to a simple yes or no question. This is a dangerous way to address difficult subjects, especially when lives are at stake.

Polling questions are not only simple, they are entirely dependent on the imagination of those polled. It is very easy to support just about any proposition if you are asked only about the idealised version in your own mind.

While polls may indicate broad public support for the concept of “assisted dying”, the public has never been asked about the specifics. Supporting an abstract principle is very different from writing a law that will shape the real world.

Assisted suicide, and this bill in particular, is a serious risk to many people in our society.
Though Seymour is at great pains to remind everyone this bill advocates only voluntary euthanasia, we also know that many people are vulnerable to abuse, bullying and exploitation.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503426&objectid=12046348

TVNZ One News 1 May 2018
Family First Comment: We think they meant to say “It’s critical that this Bill be killed!”
www.protect.org.nz

ACT MP David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill is currently sitting in the Select Committee stage, however Disability Commissioner Paula Tesoriero hopes the bill will undergo changes before it moves to the Second Reading.

The Bill “gives people with a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition the option of requesting assisted dying”.

Ms Tesoriero said she wanted to discuss the issue, making sure there was the creation of “robust debate about what this means for conditions beyond those which are terminal”.
READ MORE: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/its-critical-bill-amended-disability-commissioner-concerned-impact-euthanasia-might-capture-those-not-suffering-terminal-illness

NewsHub 27 April 2018
Family First Comment: Dear David Seymour, anyone who claims assisted dying already happens in New Zealand is peddling fake news.
Yep!
www.protect.org.nz

Anyone who claims assisted dying already happens in New Zealand is peddling fake news, a palliative care expert says.

A panel of specialists says the End of Life Bill going through Parliament is dangerous and the burden on doctors to assist a patient to die is too great.

Dr Selina Lupati is a palliative medicine specialist and says the risks in the Bill – or any legislation around assisted dying – are too great.

She says the Bill is asking doctors to make decisions that are irreversible, with less rigour than is applied to imprisoning someone in the justice system.

“Medicine is not an exact science – we make mistakes in making diagnosis, we make mistakes in prognostication.”

She is part of a panel of those working in palliative care who say public debate has been dominated by euthanasia advocates – and glossed over obvious flaws in the proposed law.

Aged Concern reports 1500 cases of elder abuse and says 75 percent of alleged abusers are family members.
READ MORE: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/health/2018/04/euthanasia-bill-risks-are-too-great-expert.html

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.

Stuff co.nz 27 April 2018
Family First Comment: Superb. Thank you!
www.protect.org.nz
#rejectassistedsuicide

The medical specialists tasked with guiding us to death are unwilling to administer euthanasia.

Senior palliative care specialists gathered on Thursday to warn against the End of Life Choice Bill, currently being considered by a parliament Select Committee.

All rejected legalised euthanasia, feared patients might be coerced into death, and considered doctors and nurses ill-equipped to evaluate a person’s readiness to die.

Hibiscus Hospice palliative medicine specialist Professor Rod MacLeod said patients were prone to changing their mind.

“Almost always when people are asking for a quick way out, what they’re saying is: ‘I don’t want to live like this’.”

New Zealand’s palliative care – which ranks third in the world – was well designed for people with terminal cancer and neuro-muscular disorders, he said.

“There’s a large cohort of people who are dying of heart failure, respiratory disease, dementia – in particular – who don’t ever get referred to palliative care services.”

These people were most vulnerable to coercion from family to end their life, which was impossible to identify, he said.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/103320307/palliative-care-specialists–reject-end-of-life-choice-bill

Doctors split over assisted dying issue
Otago Daily Times 27 April 2018
Family First Comment: 52% against. Only 32% for. But the ODT tries to suggest it’s an even split 😊
www.Protect.org.nz

The medical profession is split on the issue of assisted dying.

Just over half are opposed but a sizeable minority favour a law change.

New Zealand Doctor yesterday released results of a survey of subscribers, carried out as Parliament considers the End of Life Choice Bill.

That Bill, if passed, would permit people to request assistance in dying if they were competent and suffered from a terminal illness likely to end their life within six months, or had a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

The survey found 52% of doctors totally opposed assisted dying if death was imminent, while 32% supported it.

The numbers shifted slightly if the patient’s condition was irreversible but death was not imminent, with 56% opposed and 31% in favour.

The numbers did not surprise University of Otago law lecturer Colin Gavaghan, who has written extensively on the subject.

“The medical establishment has been anti all along, and when doctors are surrounded by those values, I guess a lot of them internalise them,” Dr Gavaghan said.
READ MORE: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/doctors-split-over-assisted-dying-issue

NewsHub 18 April 2018
Family First Comment: This is how sick, and how far, supporters of euthanasia will go. It’s not about ‘death with dignity’. It’s about suicide on demand.
www.rejectassistedsuicide.nz
Warning: This article contains sensitive content that may distress some people.

The announcement of the world’s first 3-D printed euthanasia machine has been met with outrage in the country it’s to be unveiled in.

Australian Philip Nitschke, a prominent international euthanasia advocate, has built Sarco, a device that allows people to end their own life at the simple press of a button, the Daily Mail reported.

The machine fills with nitrogen, which results in a person painlessly losing consciousness after a minute. They then die five minutes later.

Mr Nitschke has planned to officially release the machine at the upcoming Amsterdam Funeral Fair; people will be able to get a foretaste of the technology by wearing a virtual reality headset.

However Dr Nitschke says the machine aims to give people a ‘euphoric’ experience rather than a ‘dignified’ death.

“What if we dared to imagine that our last day on this planet might also be one of our most exciting?” he told the Huffington Post.

“A Sarco death is painless. There’s no suffocation, choking sensation or ‘air hunger’ as the user breathes easily in a low-oxygen environment. The sensation is one of well-being and intoxication,” he said.

Dr Nitschke intends the machine to be transported wherever one chooses – for instance the top of a mountain range or somewhere overlooking the sea.
READ MORE: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/04/outrage-as-world-s-first-euthanasia-machine-to-be-unveiled.html