"Every person matters… always! He mea nui te ora o nga tangata katoa... i nga wa katoa!" So reads New Zealand's Support Life Sunday tagline.

Inspired by the Vatican document Dignitas Infinita (On Human Dignity), the day reaffirms "the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology" says Bishop Steve Lowe, president of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference.

Dignitas Infinita reflects on what this means for individual human rights, how this impacts on our freedom in the moral and social spheres and ways it can be violated - through poverty, war, human trafficking, sexual abuse, abortion and euthanasia, Lowe says.

"We see Support Life Sunday as an opportunity to reaffirm a central and ubiquitous teaching of the Church and we hope it can be imprinted in our hearts and our minds as a daily [not just a Support Life Sunday] calling."

Dr John Kleinsman, director of the Nathaniel Centre, puts it this way - each person's value and worth "calls us to work tirelessly for justice for the weak and needy, the poor and afflicted, the vulnerable, the most insignificant, the marginalised and those downtrodden by the powerful".

Support Life ... how in a country that enables euthanasia?

New Zealand's End of Life (euthanasia) practice is the subject of an ongoing review, says Simon O'Connor MP.

The Minister in charge of the review is David Seymour.

Palliative care specialist Dr Jane Greville and ethics expert Dr Dana Wensley were inaugural members of the three-person review committee in 2021, just before the End of Life Choice Act came into force.

That committee assesses clinicians' reports on each assisted death and checks the law is being complied with. In cases where the law may have been breached, they must alert the End of Life Choice Registrar.

In a letter to Health Minister Shane Reti in March, Greville said that while the new law's introduction had been very smooth, the committee had been "constrained to the point of irrelevance".

Information lacking

There's a lack of information from the Ministry of Health, Greville and Wensley say.

Illustrating this, Wensley says she was denied access to requested data on assisted dying statistics.

Information for the reviewers about the patients was sparse or absent, she and Greville stated.

There are no records about the time patients had their lethal dose of medication, so reviewers could not consider cases where death might have taken longer than expected.

Nor did they have access to "basic material" including a patient's diagnosis, prognosis, assessment of capacity, or information which could help detect any suggestion of coercion.

Wensley and Greville say reports about patients and their doctors' recall of their cases were inconsistent. Greville wrote to Minister Shane Reti about this.

The Ministry's response was the same as when the pair also discovered incomplete and blank patient reports - they were told to "just assume nothing is wrong".

Greville and Wesley also discovered a case where a patient was approved for assisted dying, then died, while having no common language with the medical team and no interpreter provided.

When they raised their concerns about this, the Ministry of Health told them it was not within their remit. Nor did the Ministry acknowledge that the law might be faulty.

They have since had their contracts with the review committee cancelled.

Review underway

The Ministry says there are multiple safeguards built into the law. It will examine the review committee's scope in a review which is now under way.

Source

• NZ Herald
• Substack
• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference

On 9 October, the Catholic Church in New Zealand marks "Support Life Sunday."

Dr John Kleinsman, Director of the Nathaniel Centre for bioethics, says it is important this year's campaign helps people hear those who have first-hand experience of mental illness.

"By making mental health a focus, we hope to break down further and lessen the stigma and discrimination which still surrounds mental illness and encourage more open and honest conversations," he says.

"Our schools and faith communities should be places of positive connection that lift people up, and we want to encourage people to reflect on the extent to which that is the case, as well as ways of becoming more supportive, uplifting and inclusive," Kleinsman says.

Overseas research shows stigma and fears surrounding mental illness mean sufferers are less likely to get the level of pastoral care provided for people with physical illnesses.

Catholic Bishop of Auckland Stephen Lowe says about 50 to 80 per cent of us will experience some form of mental distress, addiction challenges or both.

"Mental illness is a major issue which touches every family in some way," he says.

"And yet we don't talk about it nearly enough."

Lowe believes that as a Church, we are beginning to deal with and help people with mental health issues.

"We must also realise that we can and need to do better as faith communities in acknowledging mental illness and accompanying people with it.

"It's all about putting into action our core belief in the unconditional dignity of the human person," Lowe says.

This year's parish resources for Support Life Sunday include a social media campaign that highlights critical facts about mental illness and features quotes from people living with a mental illness or caring for someone who is mentally ill.

Parish and school resources for Support Life Sunday are now available.

• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference

The country's Catholic bishops have approved the change in name and emphasis with a call for the faithful to show their love for life in deeds as well as words.

Support Life Sunday this year is Sunday 10 October. Its theme will be Honouring and Supporting Health Carers.

Bishop of Hamilton Stephen Lowe, the Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops
Conference, says the term "respect life" can seem passive. Read more