As New Zealand approaches the September 2 – 19 euthanasia referendum during its upcoming federal election, the country is in the midst of a raging debate on euthanasia. The referendum is needed to make the euthanasia bill, passed by parliament in November last year, an act.
Opponents of the bill say that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide does not have enough protections against the possible coercion of vulnerable people, elderly and people with disabilities in particular.
Speaking at a recent public forum, Renee Joubert, executive officer of advocacy group Euthanasia-Free NZ, expressed concern that the End of Life Choice Act 2019 would allow doctors to counsel patients whom they barely know, allowing them to approve their requests for assisted suicide without properly screening for coercion or without even being required to meet with the patient in person.
Legalizing euthanasia will also lead to more abuse of the law. It is possible for someone to feel pressure and ask for assisted suicide, and it is possible that someone, who has the lethal drugs for assisted suicide, will be administered those drugs rather than self-administer. In the case of euthanasia physicians and nurse practitioners become part of the mode of pressure, Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, wrote in recent blog.
Some proponents of the End-of-Life Choices Act (Act) refer to the Oregon assisted suicide model to suggest that legalizing assisted death will not result in many deaths. But Schadenberg and opponents of the bill strongly disagree.
The New Zealand Act legalizes Canadian style (MAiD) euthanasia which means that there will be many deaths, not a few. The New Zealand Act uses the following definition of assisted dying:
(a) the administration by an attending medical practitioner or an attending nurse practitioner of medication to the person to relieve the person’s suffering by hastening death; or
(b) the self-administration by the person of medication to relieve their suffering by hastening death.
This means that the New Zealand Act is similar to the Canadian MAiD (euthanasia and assisted suicide) model and not the Oregon model. Canada legalized death by (a) administration by an attending medical or nurse practitioner (done by lethal injection) and (b) self-administration (you take the lethal drugs yourself, whereas the Oregon model is limited to (b) self-administration.
Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands have legalized assisted death by euthanasia (lethal injection) and assisted suicide (self-administration of lethal drugs).
Canada legalized assisted death by lethal injection in 2016. In 2019 there were 5631 reported euthanasia deaths represented 2% of all deaths in Canada.
The Oregon assisted suicide law came into effect in 1998, In 2019 there were 188 reported assisted suicide deaths represented about 0.5% of all deaths in Oregon.
The Netherlands euthanasia law which came into effect in 2002. In 2017 there were 6585 reported euthanasia (lethal injection) deaths representing almost 4.5% of all deaths.
Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide (a) administration by an attending medical or nurse practitioner (done by lethal injection) and (b) self-administration (taking the lethal drugs yourself) there will be exponentially more deaths than when the law is limited to assisted suicide, as in Oregon.
