Terry Sarten: Quality end-of-life care should be nation’s priority

By NZHPA

January 26, 2018

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Originally published in The New Zealand Herald, 21 January 2018 By Terry Sarten The current debate around proposed legislation that will allow for assisted dying, euthanasia and the right to die is a deeply profound distraction that suits politicians well. It is simply palliative legislation. The definition of the term palliative includes the words “relieving the pain without dealing with the cause of the condition”. The legislation as it stands …Read More

David E. Richmond: In 40 years of terminal care I’ve never seen unmanageable suffering

By NZHPA

January 23, 2018

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Originally published in The New Zealand Herald, 16 January 2018 By David E. Richmond Dr Havill’s opinion piece in last Tuesday’s Herald is a fine example of the genre of emotionalism he rails against in those who oppose his attempts to convince the public that legalised euthanasia is the holy grail of medicine. Unfortunately he has not been able to save himself from the mire of emotionalism and exaggeration he criticises …Read More

We do not like to talk about death – but that doesn’t make euthanasia the answer

By NZHPA

December 22, 2017

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Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 2017 By Richard Chye   One of the hallmarks of the euthanasia debate so far – in NSW and Victoria – has been the determination of its proponents to depict any opposition as being based purely on religion. So, before I go on, perhaps it would help to make the following clear. I am not religious. I do not follow a …Read More

Shedding New Light On Hospice Care: No Need To Wait For The ‘Brink Of Death’

By NZHPA

December 20, 2017

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Originally published in Kaiser Health News, 7 September 2017 By Judith Graham A few weeks ago, Kathy Brandt’s 86-year-old mother was hospitalized in Florida after a fall. After rushing to her side, Brandt asked for a consult with a palliative care nurse. “I wanted someone to make sure my mother was on the right medications,” Brandt said. For all her expertise — Brandt advises end-of-life organizations across the country — she was …Read More

Euthanasia laws: the true implications

By NZHPA

December 19, 2017

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Originally published in The Spectator Australia, 28 November 2017 By John Buchanan   The “voluntary Assisted dying” legislation appears set to pass both lower and upper houses in Victoria. However, let us call it “assisted suicide and euthanasia legislation”, because that is what it is. One of the problems with this whole debate has been with the corruption of language. The aim of language changes has been to try to …Read More

Palliative Care: the Pearl of Great Price

By NZHPA

December 18, 2017

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Originally published in The Huffington Post, 9 April 2017 By Katherine Pettus One reason global palliative care advocacy is so challenging is because it implies systems change. Palliative care is an approach, an ethic, a multi-disciplinary sub-speciality, not just a new element that can be added and stirred into health systems. Palliative care doesn’t accommodate itself to the existing global health ideology, but challenges the ground of that ideology, which is fixated on …Read More

I want to care for people, not kill them

By NZHPA

December 16, 2017

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Originally published in The Daily Telegraph, 16 November 2017 By Dr John Obeid   OF the many and varied euphemisms employed by advocates of assisted suicide and euthanasia, “assisted dying” is perhaps the most outrageous. Assisting dying patients by providing pain management and emotional and psychological support is exactly what health professionals already do but assisting a dying patient is altogether different from deliberately “assisting” that patient to die by …Read More

Dr Sinead Donnelly: Palliative medicine uses morphine with care

By NZHPA

December 15, 2017

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Originally published in The New Zealand Herald, 15 December 2017 By Dr Sinead Donnelly In support of his bill that seeks to change the law in New Zealand, David Seymour claims, “It is ok if a doctor intentionally ends your life by giving you too much morphine and claiming that’s a double effect. All that is ok. All that happens without any regulatory safeguards whatsoever.” I am a palliative medicine …Read More

Euthanasia fails doctors’ code

By NZHPA

December 14, 2017

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Originally published in The Australian, 20 October 2017 By Michael Gannon The Victorian parliament is in the final stages of debating its Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill. So is the Victorian community, and the Australian community. Events in Spring Street are being watched very closely nationally and internationally, and with good reason. There is a VAD bill before the NSW parliament, and a parliamentary committee on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has …Read More

Making Victoria’s euthanasia laws: a process to be shunned

By NZHPA

December 12, 2017

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Originally published in The Spectator Australia, 7 December 2017 By Robert Clark   Last month, Victoria became the only jurisdiction in the world to have voted to legalise euthanasia in 2017.  Why and how did such legislation come to be passed in Victoria, despite being rejected everywhere else? Regrettably, what occurred in Victoria has been a stark example of the parliamentary process at its worst.  The proposal proceeded from a biased …Read More