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Media Release – American College of Pediatricians 20 September 2017
Family First Comment: A superb response from medical professionals in the USA.
“Physicians recognize that every attempted suicide is a desperate cry for help. Depression, even suicidal depression, is eminently treatable. Depression in the context of terminal illness is likewise treatable. It is absurd to carve out “terminal” as a special class for which physicians must suspend their ethical standards of medical care.”
The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) and the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) applaud our 150,000 colleagues in the American College of Physicians (ACP) for boldly opposing the contradictory practice of physician-assisted suicide in their recently released position statement, Ethics and the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide. 
Assisting in or directly causing the death of our patients violates the long standing medical ethics principle of “first do no harm.” Killing is diametrically opposed to the given role of physicians as healers.  Disguised as promoting “patient autonomy,” these laws permit physicians a very active role in ending lives. 
Assisted suicide laws presume the novel possibility of a benevolent role for physicians in “carrying out a patient’s wishes” to be killed. Physicians are not mere vending machines or indentured servants obligated to provide whatever is requested regardless of the ethics involved. Doctors are obligated to make an independent judgment of the propriety of their every act. Only a very twisted form of logic would argue that physicians’ duty of beneficence makes them appropriate agents of suicide.  
Dr. Donna Harrison, Executive Director of AAPLOG noted that physician-assisted suicide fractures the trust between a doctor and her patient, and facilitates the exploitation of our most vulnerable patients. 
“When the physician tasked with healing also carries a license to kill, how can any patient trust her physician to place her health and best interests first?” She continued, “Also, the potential for abuse of our elderly and disabled patients increases since assisted suicide laws allow abusive caregivers to legally obtain lethal drugs.”  
Physicians recognize that every attempted suicide is a desperate cry for help. Depression, even suicidal depression, is eminently treatable. Depression in the context of terminal illness is likewise treatable. It is absurd to carve out “terminal” as a special class for which physicians must suspend their ethical standards of medical care. 
Dr. Cretella, President of ACPeds stated, 
“As physicians, we are privileged to accompany our patients through joyful times of vigorous health, as well as times of sorrow and illness. We cure sometimes, but provide care and comfort always. Physicians are healers not killers.” 
The physicians of the ACPeds, AAPLOG, and the ACP stand firmly united in opposition to the practice of physician-assisted suicide.
 
 

One of the main reasons that politicians have rejected previous attempts to decriminalise assisted suicide / euthanasia is that they realised that ‘safeguards’, while sounding good, would not guarantee the protection required for vulnerable people including the disabled, elderly, depressed or anxious, and those who feel themselves to be a burden or are under financial pressure. The international evidence backs up these concerns, and explains why so few countries have made any changes to the law around this issue. There are contradictory messages when society rightly wants to take a zero-tolerance approach to suicide, yet at the same time wants to approve a person taking their life. The potential for abuse and flouting of procedural safeguards is a further strong argument against assisted suicide. The solution is to ensure a palliative care regime that is fully funded and world class. That’s where the politicians’ focus should be. The recent inquiry into assisted suicide / euthanasia had 16,000+ submissions (80% of all submissions) opposing assisted suicide / euthanasia.
READ MORE: www.RejectAssistedSuicide.nz

(click on image/s to download PDF)

Stuff co.nz 15 September 2017
Family First Comment: “If our fight against suicide is to be effective we simply must be able to explain why some physical suffering justifies death while the mental torture that is severe depression, or bipolar, or schizophrenia, does not. Don’t all involve horrendous, prolonged mental or physical pain? Don’t all involve loss of dignity at certain points? Don’t all involve loss of quality of life? Don’t all involve a shortened life expectancy?
When compassion means allowing some to choose death to relieve suffering, how can it also mean convincing others to live through it?
If we cannot answer these questions, then surely, we have to face the fact that what we are fighting with one hand, we are feeding with the other.”
OPINION: One week out from a general election, our politicians just can’t seem to stay away from life and death issues.
Last week, it was abortion. This week, National MP Simon O’Connor got himself into hot water over the issue of euthanasia. He criticised the Labour leader for supporting both a zero suicide rate and euthanasia laws.
His boss, Bill English, texted him to tell him he was wrong to link the two, which makes you wonder whether English actually read the report on euthanasia that O’Connor, along with politicians of other stripes, produced recently.
On page 43 the report deals explicitly with the arguments differentiating suicide from euthanasia. The section points out that one of the world’s most important health organisations recognises that it is actually very difficult to do so.
“The World Health Organization acknowledges significant definitional difficulties in its most recent publication on the issue”, we read. “In its 2014 report, ‘Preventing Suicide: A global imperative’, it defines suicide as the act of deliberately killing oneself.”
That definition describes precisely what New Zealand euthanasia laws will aid people to do.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/96866345/narelle-henson-complex-matters-of-life-and-death

TVNZ One News 15 September 2017
Two thirds of New Zealanders are in favour of euthanasia, when it comes to patients with terminal illnesses.
That’s according to data from 1 NEWS’ online election tool Vote Compass.

First Things 1 September 2017
Family First Comment: An excellent insight…..
“When some suicides are promoted in media, law, and popular culture as a social good—as assisted suicides are—that can have an unintended effect on suicidal people who do not qualify for “assistance” under the law….
“Due in part to the media’s promotion campaign, suicide has become a siren song attracting the ill, aged, and despairing, while potentially endangering the lives of suicidal people whose circumstances are—for now—outside official “death with dignity” paradigms.”
This is precisely why the media’s glamorization of assisted suicide is so harmful. Take the example of Brittany Maynard. Most readers will recall that Maynard, a beautiful young woman, attained international A-list celebrity status when she decided to commit assisted suicide after contracting terminal brain cancer. People declared her a hero in a cover story:

For the past 29 years, Brittany Maynard has lived a fearless life—running half marathons, traveling through Southeast Asia for a year and even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. So, it’s no surprise she is facing her death the same way. On Monday, Maynard will launch an online video campaign with the nonprofit Compassion and Choices, an end-of-life choice advocacy organization, to fight for expanding Death with Dignity laws nationwide.

The madness didn’t end there. CNN named her an “extraordinary person” of 2014: “Her example sparked a widespread debate about the rights of people with incurable illnesses to determine how and when they will die. Maynard followed through on her plans in November, dying on her own terms.” The message is clear: Dying naturally is for chumps. Living with significant limitations is undignified. Assisted suicide is courageous.
The most recent example of this phenomenon comes out of the Netherlands, where an elderly couple received joint euthanasia. There was a time, not so long ago, when the suicides of elderly couples were considered a tragedy. Not anymore. Notice the admiring tone of the Washington Post story describing the deaths:

Nic and Trees Elderhorst knew exactly how they wanted to die. They were both 91 years old and in declining health. Nic Elderhorst suffered a stroke in 2012 and more recently, his wife, Trees Elderhorst, was diagnosed with dementia.…Neither wanted to live without the other, or leave this world alone.

So the two, who…had been together 65 years, shared a last word, and a kiss, then died last month hand-in-hand—in a double euthanasia allowed under Dutch law, according to [the Dutch newspaper] De Gelderlander. “Dying together was their deepest wish,” their daughters told the newspaper, according to an English translation.

Such media plaudits have the potential to hurt others. Kheriaty provides an example:

The case of fourteen-year-old Valentina Maureira, a Chilean girl who suffered from cystic fibrosis, illustrates both effects while highlighting the power of social influences. Maureira made a YouTube video begging her government to legalize assisted suicide. She admitted that the idea to end her life began after she heard about the case of Brittany Maynard, the twenty-nine-year-old woman who campaigned for the legalization of assisted suicide before ending her own life.

Maureira did not have access to assisted suicide, because it was illegal in Chile and she was a minor. Good thing. She changed her mind after another patient with cystic fibrosis intervened and convinced her that her life was worth continuing. Had Maureira been able to find help committing suicide before then, she never would have known that she would later have wanted to live.
But that doesn’t resonate. Showing the media’s lack of true empathy, Kheriaty writes, “Her father complained that the media were only interested in her story when she wanted to die.”
If you doubt my thesis, compare the reportage about the death of Lauren Hill, a young woman who died naturally of the same cancer that caused Maynard to pursue and promote suicide. Hill struggled to continue playing college basketball—which garnered some coverage in the sports press—and raised money for cancer research. Yet despite promoting a far more positive life-with-dignity message than Maynard did, Hill received an obituary in People of only 196 words. People devoted 1196 laudatory words—huge for that publication—to Maynard in the wake of her suicide, clearly violating the World Health Organization’s media guidelines that outlets not glamorize suicides.
Due in part to the media’s promotion campaign, suicide has become a siren song attracting the ill, aged, and despairing, while potentially endangering the lives of suicidal people whose circumstances are—for now—outside official “death with dignity” paradigms.
READ MORE: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/09/how-the-media-promote-some-suicides

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Stuff co.nz 28 August 2017
Family First Comment: Care – not killing.
Hospice is often thought of as a final refuge; a place where people spend their last days.
But as the service evolves it is offering much more than that.
Nelson Tasman Hospice’s first palliative medicine specialist Dr Jodie Battley said late-stage care was still a core part of the service, but it was now involved with patients much earlier.
That allowed staff to build relationships with patients and their families.
“The big message is that we can help you live well with limited time, it’s all about quality of life.”
Battley said the research showed that early integration of palliative care with oncology and other services meant better outcomes for people.
“These patients do better in terms of quality of life, symptom control and satisfaction with their care.”
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/96076740/specialist-to-enhance-palliative-services-at-hospice-in-nelson

TVNZ One News 10 August 2017
Family First Comment: Oh dear. How sad. Never mind. We will survive  😊
http://www.rejectassistedsuicide.nz
David Seymour’s voluntary euthanasia bill won’t be debated before parliament is dissolved on August 22.
Yesterday was the last member’s bill day before dissolution and it was nowhere near the top of the agenda for a first reading.

NZ Herald 10 August 2017
Family First Comment: Superb commentary. Thank you Simon.
Throughout this term of Parliament it has been my privilege to serve as chair of the health committee. Over the last two years, it has been my responsibility to lead the inquiry into assisted suicide and euthanasia as requested by a petition to Parliament.

I led a group of dedicated MPs from a cross-section of parties in listening to what New Zealanders had to say about this difficult but important subject. I felt it was essential that I maintained an unbiased, even-handed process, though I made no secret of my own personal concerns about the topic.

From the outset, I believed it was important for all those concerned to know my opinion so that they could watch me and ensure that I behaved in a fair manner towards all sides and I have appreciated the statements by MPs and by the petitioner acknowledging my professional impartiality.

Over 21,000 New Zealanders wrote to the committee with their own thoughts on assisted dying and euthanasia. Of those, 944 people spoke to us in person over 108 hours of hearings. This inquiry was the largest ever undertaken by a New Zealand Parliament and was the largest, most public discussion ever held on this topic.

Now that the investigation is complete, now that all of the submitters have been heard, and the report has been written by the health committee as a whole, I feel I can finally say a few words myself.
Before entering Parliament I spent years studying ethics and philosophy at university, particularly around human rights. Some might see these fields as impractical but they prepared me well for this investigation. My extensive readings, lectures, and discussions formed the basis of my objection to assisted suicide.

I entered this investigation willing to hear evidence from all sides and was prepared to consider new arguments if they were presented. Unfortunately, the arguments in favour of assisted suicide and euthanasia are not terribly well-reasoned. They rely heavily on emotional experiences and intense ideologies. These are not the best foundations for building laws, but they are important and they do deserve to be heard.
READ MORE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11900872

Media Release – Hospice NZ 4 August 2017
Hospice NZ has welcomed the report of the Health Select Committee’s investigation into the desire to end one’s life, which was tabled in the House earlier this week.
“We support the committee’s comments urging the Government to find ways to raise awareness of the benefits of palliative care and address equity of access and funding across hospital, residential aged care, community services and hospice.”  Says Mary Schumacher, CEO of Hospice NZ.
“We are aware that not all people are aware of or access palliative care services and therefore may not get the support they need at the end of their lives which has been confirmed by the Committee’s report.”
“Death is still a taboo subject in our society, many people fear discuss death and dying, but in reality, it’s a natural part of the life process.   Preparing and expressing your wishes to family can be hugely beneficial.” Said Ms Schumacher.
“The huge number of submissions the Committee received and considered shows the interest and concern for end of life issues that exists in the community as well as the divergence of opinion on this subject.”
Hospice NZ applauds the process and thanks the Committee for the strong endorsement of palliative care services and suggestions to Government.

NewsHub 2 August 2017
Not a single recommendation has been made by Parliament’s health select committee after hearing more than 21,000 submissions on public attitudes toward legalising assisted dying.
Four in five people who contacted the committee during an investigation of public attitudes toward euthanasia legislation were opposed to the idea.
The committee has spent several years investigating public views toward assisted dying for the terminally ill and those with irreversible conditions, based on a petition by former Labour MP Maryan Street.
In a report released on Wednesday the committee, chaired by Simon O’Connor, concluded any decision on the issue would generally be a conscience vote.
Of the 80 percent opposed to legislation that would legalise medically-assisted euthanasia, the report concluded they were primarily concerned about endangering the public.
“They cited concern for vulnerable people, such as the elderly and disabled, those with mental illness, and those susceptible to coercion,” the report says.
“Others argued that life has an innate value and that introducing assisted dying and euthanasia would explicitly undermine that idea.”
READ MORE: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/health/2017/08/no-advice-from-assisted-dying-report.html

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