The New Zealand Parliament Health Committee’s report on Euthanasia has made a single recommendation. Read the report.
“The Health Committee has considered Petition 2014/18 of Hon Maryan Street and 8,974 others and recommends that the House take note of its report.”
The the Committee recognises that that euthanasia is a very complicated, very divisive, and extremely contentious issue.
“We therefore encourage everyone with an interest in the subject to read the report in full, and to draw their own conclusions based on the evidence presented in it.”
Committee chairman Simon O’Connor said the report did not make any formal recommendations to the Government about whether euthanasia should be legalised. It instead provided a summary of the arguments for and against assisted dying.
The committee has tried tried to distil all the arguments so as to help parliament, and the people of New Zealand, come to a deeper understanding of what’s been asked around the issue of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The Care Alliance has welcomed the report. Matthew Jansen, Secretary of the Care Alliance said it is a careful and thorough summary of both sides of the issue. They are is encouraging all those with an interest in the subject to read it in full.
Between 75 and 80 per cent of the submissions were opposed to legalising voluntary euthanasia.
But O’Connor says it is not simply a numbers game. “It is about actually understanding the arguments for and against and making a decision about which ones are correct,”
The report was unanimously backed by political parties, though New Zealand First said any decision about legalising assisted dying should require a referendum, rather than a conscience vote in Parliament.
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