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 Read more
The select committee inquiry into public attitudes to assisted dying has received 21,435 written submissions, and they are running three to one against the assistance to die. Dr Jane Silloway Smith, Director of Every Life Research Unit has been analysing submissions made to the Health Select Committee’s investigation into ending one’s life in New Zealand. She Read more
I am a teacher in a high school in Porirua. Along with other qualifications I hold a BSc majoring in both Zoology and Psychology. My father passed away in 2004 due to stomach cancer and my grandmother was in long term care for three years as the result of becoming disabled after several strokes. As Read more
A Christchurch father’s call for the right to end his life has reignited debate about assisted-suicide for the terminally ill. Philip Broderick, 33, has the same type of brain cancer as American Brittany Maynard, who chose to end her life this week. Palmerston North Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway said he would take the debate forward Read more
A question hangs over the future of the End of Life Choices private member’s bill because its sponsor, Maryan Street, has not been elected to the new parliament. The proposed bill provided for both physician-assisted euthanasia (PAE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The Bill was introduced in 2012 but was withdrawn in September 2013. The reason Read more
Prime Minister John Key has signalled possible loosening of euthanasia laws. But he said he would not vote for a bill proposed by Labour MP Maryan Street. Street’s bill allows any adult suffering from a condition likely to cause their death within 12 months to request medical assistance to die. “If it’s the same bill, I’ll Read more
Maryan Street, a member of Parliament in New Zealand disputes the figures in a report prepared by the Institute of Marriage and Family in Canada which claims deaths by assisted suicide have increased wherever the practices have been legalised. The report states that international evidence shows that once assisted suicide or euthanasia are legalised, the criteria morph to include more Read more
“While the decision by Labour MP Maryan Street to withdraw her Euthanasia Bill from the Members Ballot today is welcomed, we understand that it arises from purely political motives – a wish to avoid a controversial debate in an election year – rather than out of concern for the dangerous social consequences of such a Read more
An advocate of voluntary euthanasia says that it is “inevitable” that the practice will become lawful in New Zealand. Melbourne-based urological surgeon Dr Rodney Syme believes that choosing when and how a person dies is a human right and says that he expects physician-assisted death to be made legal within the next decade. Syme, who Read more
“The legalising of euthanasia would open up new pathways of abuse for many elderly and otherwise vulnerable people,” says Director of The Nathaniel Centre and bioethics researcher John Kleinsman. His comments were made in response to MP Maryan Street’s End of Life Choice Bill being put into the Ballot. Ms Street has publicly admitted her Read more