The End of Life Choice Act will create a tough pastoral issue for New Zealand’s Catholic bishops says Bishop Patrick Dunn (pictured). The Act comes into force on 7 November. The big pastoral issue revolves around whether or not to give the last rites to people who choose assisted suicide or euthanasia. The last rites 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
The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) and New Zealand’s Catholic bishops conference, Hospice New Zealand, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists have all expressed dismay at the vote allowing assisted dying. NZMA says it goes against medical values and is a “step too far” for many doctors. NZMA Read more
I am not writing to tell you how to vote in the binding referendum on the End of Life Choice Act, but I hope I can be of some help so you are better informed about the Act. Firstly, though, I want to help you think about the concepts of justice, love, compassion, mercy and Read more
ACT leader David Seymour argues that those who oppose the End of Life Choice Act are doing so purely on religious grounds. He is ignoring the repeated clarification that this is not the case. However, that being said, there is another more fundamental issue; Seymour appears to belong to what Professor Robert George calls a Read more
A televised debate on the euthanasia referendum went septic when ACT leader, David Seymour accused Palliative Care Specialist, Dr Sinead Donnelly of basing her objections on religion, not facts. Donnelly and Seymour appeared on TV3’s Newshub Nation on Saturday morning. Donnelly said the proposed Act is a “dangerous law” that will put the lives of Read more
ACT leader David Seymour, Wednesday, issued a reminder to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops to keep the Commandments. In a statement on the End of Life Choice Act, Seymour singled out New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops and told them they needed to follow the ninth commandment and to ‘stop bearing false witness against their neighbours in Read more
John Kleinsman, director of The Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics – an agency of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, says the conference believes it is dangerous to implement any euthanasia law. But the conference specifically takes issue with the proposed End of Life Choice Act that is the subject of the impending referendum. “I think 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