If there’s anything worse than a busybody telling us how to live, it’s a busybody telling us how to die. Stand up National MP and former gardening guru Maggie Barry.
Coming from the world of seasonal culling, Barry has decided the concept of voluntary euthanasia is so anathematic that she is going to start up a parliamentary encounter group on palliative care, and kill off the sensible legislation of Labour MP Maryann Street that gives the terminally ill the opportunity to end their suffering.
There can be no question that Parliament is wholly out of step with public sentiment when it comes to death. For the past two decades, public opinion polls have indicated New Zealanders clearly want the option of voluntary euthanasia should their medical prognosis be a lingering, uncomfortable and distressing death.