What happens if a patient doesn’t die during a euthanasia attempt? That’s one of a number of ethical and legal questions being asked by palliative care experts who say we are woefully unprepared to introduce assisted dying. Senior nursing leaders are also concerned New Zealand won’t be ready when the law takes effect on 7 Read more
Medical students become more opposed to euthanasia during their training as they progress through medical school, a new study says. In their second year, almost 65 percent of medical students at Otago University supported euthanasia or assisted dying. Support for the practice reduced during each year of training: by their third year it fell to Read more
Assisted dying will not be on offer to Gore Health patients. The health centre’s chief executive officer Karl Metzler has announced it will not be carrying out any end of life procedures. Metzler says Gore Health’s decision was made by its prescribing physicians. Not one of them support the bill. “None of them got into Read more
New Zealand doctors are getting ready to implement the End of Life Choice Act when it comes into force next year. Assisted dying will become legal from 6 November 2021. The preliminary referendum result at last month’s election shows 65.1 percent of voters supported the act and 33.8 percent opposed it. The New Zealand Medical Read more
Concern is mounting that people voting in the euthanasia referendum may not realise what they are voting for. In an interview on Magic Talk on Monday National Party Leader, Judith Collins, seemed to blur the line between managing pain and a deliberate choice for a person to end their life. Asked how she reconciled her Read more
I’ve had too many close encounters with death and dying lately. I guess it comes with the territory as you hit the slide side of 60. Too many funerals. There have been the inevitable losses of parents, something for which, despite the inevitability, you’re never quite prepared. And the sudden passing of those mates you Read more
In recent weeks there have been unsubstantiated claims in New Zealand media by pro-euthanasia, retired doctors or ‘veteran medical specialists’ around the End of Life Choice Act, which will be voted on during the upcoming referendum. As specialist doctors trained in palliative medicine and currently practising in New Zealand, we’re extremely concerned at their argument Read more
While stories of the Church denying both its call and Christ to pursue affection and belonging in the culture of its day are not uncommon. Thank God there are also many stories where the Church embraced the cross of their day, to be slain by the political and economic lords, in order to be a Read more
Kiwi journalist Caralise Trayes was interviewed on RNZ Sunday about a book that she has just completed called The Final Choice. She said she was motivated to write The Final Choice after she realised she would soon have to vote in the referendum, but she did not know much about the issue. The New Zealand Read more