In a significant move, the NZ Catholic bishops are promoting open and informed life discussion through a modernised and broadened document, Te Kahu o te Ora – A Consistent Ethic of Life. The modernisation seeks to fill a twenty-six-year gap and reflect some of the modern challenges. Dr John Kleinsman, director of the NZ Catholic 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
Christchurch psychologist Dr Mark Ottley, says the best medications, psychological help and palliative care did not always work for patients. Ottley leads psychological pain management services at Southern Rehab. He outlined his views in a submission to the Health Select Committee inquiry into euthanasia legislation. Confusion of Terminology The director of The Nathaniel Centre Dr John Kleinsman Read more
Four Kiwis who went to last year’s synod on the family have welcomed Pope Francis’s wide-ranging new apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family. In a statement released through the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Cardinal John Dew, Bishop Charles Drennan, Dr John Kleinsman and Sharon Cole spoke on Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love). Read more
Saying yes to voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide would take New Zealand into dangerous territory, and was open to significant abuse, said Dr John Kleinsman. “The legalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide is not merely a matter of individual choice and should not be based on high-profile individual tragic cases, such as the Lecretia Read more
Bishop Charles Drennan of Palmerston North has acknowledged talk of factions at the synod on the family, but he has a different take on the supposed splits. In a blog post on the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference website, Bishop Drennan said there is a “marked air of openness” at the synod and no topics are Read more
Four New Zealanders will be attending the Synod on Marriage and the Family. NewstalkZB reports that the church describes the selection of 4 New Zealanders as a significant number for a small country, especially one with a small Catholic population. The Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, and Palmerston North’s Bishop Charles Drennan will be Read more
New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre director John Kleinsman wonders how free Brittany Maynard really was. Maynard, a terminally ill 29 year old American ended her life last week home in Oregon, using drugs supplied legally to her under the state’s Death with Dignity Act. She worked as a volunteer advocate for the nation’s leading end-of-life choice organisation, Read more
“The right to die would very quickly become a duty to die,” says the director of the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre, John Kleinsman. He was speaking to close to 140 people at a public meeting in New Plymouth last week. Kleinsman said his opposition to euthanasia was based on social concerns that its introduction, Read more
John Kleinsman believes there are better alternatives than euthanasia If euthanasia is legalised the right to die will all too easily become a duty to die. The crux of this debate is whether what a suicidal person proposes – to kill themselves – is a goal which should be shared and facilitated by the state, Read more