Which side spent more and why? Jihee Junn crunches the numbers and finds a few misleading claims along the way. Ahead of election day, a handful of interest groups took to Facebook and Google to lobby for their respective views on the assisted dying and cannabis referendums. In the end, New Zealanders voted decisively for … Read more
Having been part of the fight for reproductive rights as president of ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, Terry Bellamak says she’s struck by the similarities between the struggles for abortion rights and assisted dying. Both prioritise bodily autonomy Both abortion rights and the right to voluntary assisted dying are founded on the idea that our physical … Read more
Dr James Jap regularly watches people die. He talks to Michelle Langstone about how working in palliative care has shaped his outlook, his family, and his wardrobe. James Jap had never seen anyone die until his fourth year of medical school. On an overnight shift with St John’s ambulance, he was called out to the … Read more
Legalising euthanasia while the world is in the grip of a deadly pandemic would further stretch an already stretched health system, and have implications far beyond that for the disabled community, writes Robyn Hunt. Read more perspectives on the assisted dying referendum here. Considering assisted dying in the middle of a deadly world pandemic seems counterintuitive. … Read more
The people behind a widely shared quiz on the End of Life Choice referendum say they’re presenting the facts, but the leading advocate of law reform says it’s misinformation. An online quiz related to the assisted dying referendum has been described as a “very clever piece of misinformation” by the End of Life Choice Act’s … Read more
Alongside the general election of 2020, New Zealanders will be asked to vote on the End of Life Choice bill, which allows voluntary euthanasia for those suffering terminal illnesses. Here’s our bumper question-and-answer special on what it involves. Click here for everything you need to know about the cannabis referendum. Read more from the Spinoff … Read more
If David Seymour’s assisted dying bill gets knocked out in Parliament, hopes of a referendum at the 2020 election die with it, writes Graham Adams. We will soon find out — probably in the next six weeks — which of our MPs believe in participatory democracy and which don’t. The vote on the second reading … Read more
The North Shore MP’s aggressive opposition to the End of Life Choice Bill is proving such a turn off that it can only bolster the pro-euthanasia side, writes Graham Adams. David Lange – famed stand-up comic and New Zealand’s funniest prime minister – once quipped that National leader Jim Bolger had “gone around the country … Read more
New Zealanders could be getting votes on cannabis reform, MMP and assisted dying – but politicians have a bunch of questions to answer first, writes Andrew Geddis New Zealand’s recent experience with using referendums to make decisions has all been a bit odd, really. We had a rather pointless one in 2011 on whether to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Possible super–referendum mooted for next year, damning fishing report leaked, and Fonterra raises milk price forecasts to near record highs. The social conscience of the nation could be sternly tested next year, if two burning political issues are put to a referendum. Both legalising marijuana for personal … Read more
Matt Vickers, author of Lecretia’s Choice, has been an outspoken advocate for a new assisted dying law. Here he looks at the parties’ positions with that priority in mind. If assisted dying is in any way important to you, it is likely to influence how you vote in the upcoming general election. Unfortunately, a number … Read more
At first look, it all seems so sensible: people who find no value in their lives should be allowed the choice to end them. Right? Wrong, says Dr John Fox – and here’s why. One of my first memories is pain. It was my first hospital operation, a corrective surgery to make it easier to … Read more
Matt Vickers, widower of physician-assisted dying advocate Lecretia Seales, responds to the news that David Seymour’s assisted dying bill has passed the first hurdle to becoming law. I can imagine Bob McCoskrie’s eyebrows twitching in fury at the news that David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was drawn out of the parliamentary ballot on … Read more
Targeting people who attended a euthanasia advocacy group meeting under the guise of a road safety operation is deeply disturbing. The police minister needs to condemn it immediately, writes Toby Manhire Breath-testing checkpoints have these days become a staple of the New Zealand driving experience, as reliably familiar and cheering/infuriating as flocks of sheep being … Read more
The Spinoff’s magical interns Katie Parker and River Lin spent an evening gobbling fish and listening to people talk about death. Here they converse via email about what they learned about David Seymour, assisted suicide and their own mortality. Katie: River! So last night you and I were fortunate enough to attend a pretty exciting … Read more
The law needs to be changed to allow Lecretia Seales’ wish to determine when she died. But we must take care that such a measure would not be a slippery slope toward some ambiguous twilight zone, says Sir Geoffrey Palmer Lecretia Seales died of a cancerous brain tumour in Wellington on 3 June 2015. She … Read more
Patient autonomy is crucial, but the belief it should trump all other considerations should be viewed with caution, writes Medical Association chair Stephen Child. Dr Stephen Child will join David Seymour and others as part of next week’s Spinoff-Ika Table Talk, hosted by Jeremy Elwood, on August 30. More details here. The issue of voluntary … Read more
Opposition among disabled people to assisted suicide stems from long experience of encountering negative attitudes and human rights abuses, writes Robyn Hunt. I assure David Seymour that assisted suicide is a really big and complicated deal. It is no coincidence that disabled people all over the world oppose it. Our opposition arises from a (largely … Read more
Senior ministers just want the assisted dying issue to go away. But for people like Rachel Rypma, legislation could not be more important, writes David Seymour. At first I thought the issue of legalising assisted dying would be a really big deal. One of those major culture war type battles like gay marriage or the … Read more
David Seymour has thrown his member’s bill into the parliamentary hat. But the legislation currently being debated in Canada differs in some important ways, writes Andrew Geddis. The case of Lecretia Seales last year brought to prominence the issue of doctor assisted suicide/aid in dying (it’s a telling sign of how divided views are that … Read more
A select committee review into assisted dying is coming up, and all signs point to a foregone conclusion. Former caregiver Talia Marshall recalls her time working in a rest home, where the debate has a very different meaning. I remember trying to a watch a VHS copy of Anne of Green Gables with my grandparents in my grandads … Read more