PM does not appreciate complexity of the euthanasia issue -

PM does not appreciate complexity of the euthanasia issue

Friday, August 24th, 2012

In a Radio Interview the Prime Minister, Mr Key, said he understands the argument legalising euthanasia could put pressure on the elderly to end their lives early, however he did not buy into it.

“I think there’s a lot of euthanasia that effectively happens in our hospitals.”

The director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Ian Powell, did not think euthanasia was occurring the way Mr Key made out.

“The situation is much more complex than that,” he told Fairfax Media.

“Sometimes continuing a treatment can prolong the agony for a patient, and not even keep the patient alive.

“By not prolonging the agony . . . even though the intent is not for the patient to die, it is sometimes a consequence.”

Sinead Donnelly, a palliative medicine specialist and chair of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Care Aotearoa (ANZSPM) has hit out, and said Mr Key seriously misrepresented the care by doctors and nurses in hospitals.

“Palliative care doctors and nurses throughout New Zealand strive ceaselessly, on a daily basis, to relieve the suffering of people facing imminent death. We never practise euthanasia; euthanasia is the deliberate ending of life, and is illegal and unethical.”