New Zealand Health Professionals Alliance Incorporated
Te Hononga Mātanga Hauora o Aotearoa
The New Zealand Health Professionals Alliance Inc (NZHPA) opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Euthanasia is the deliberate ending of a patient’s life by a health professional. Participation in this practice is unethical. It remains wrong, regardless of a request for it from a patient or their family/whānau.
NZHPA supports retention of the current law which makes euthanasia and assisted suicide illegal. NZHPA firmly rejects moves to decriminalize these practices in New Zealand.
NZHPA believes that vulnerable people are at risk if euthanasia and assisted suicide is legalised. The frail, the elderly, the disabled and those with a terminal illness will feel pressure to request euthanasia out of fear of being a burden to their family and others.
No legal safeguards, short of a total prohibition on euthanasia and assisted suicide, will ensure public safety.
The normalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide would undermine and be contrary to efforts by nursing and medical professionals to reduce youth suicide.
NZHPA advocates for improved access to palliative care and hospice services. Excellence in palliative care, offered in the right way, at the right time, is what is needed to ease patients’ suffering.
The New Zealand Health Professionals Alliance is implacable in its opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
November 2012