Tag Archives: euthanasia
Originally published in The Guardian, 20 September 2017 By Margaret Somerville Dying and death is not a new phenomenon: we have always become ill, suffered, were going to die and someone else could have killed us. So why now, at the beginning of the 21st century, after prohibiting euthanasia for thousands of years and when we can do so much more to relieve suffering than in the past, do we …Read More
Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 2017 By Sean Nicholls Palliative care professionals have presented a united front against proposed voluntary assisted dying legislation on the eve of debate in the NSW Parliament, declaring the bill “cannot be made safe”. The NSW upper house is set to debate laws that would make it legal for terminally ill NSW residents aged 25 or over and expected to die …Read More
Originally published in The Age, 16 October 2017 by Emma Dawson I’ve hesitated before entering the debate around the assisted dying legislation now before the Victorian Parliament, because people of good intentions are driving the legislative process. But the willingness of some euthanasia advocates to paint all opposition as religious zealotry must not go unchallenged. I’m not religious. And, for the record, I support both marriage equality and abortion rights …Read More
The Asia Pacific Hospice and Palliative Care Network promotes access to good-quality hospice and palliative care for all in the Asia Pacific region. We value every moment of life and do not support any action that has the intention of shortening a person’s life. Restoring dignity and enhancing quality of life is the basis of palliative care. We do not support the deliberate ending of life and we view with …Read More
The New Zealand Health Select Committee conducted an inquiry into ‘Ending One’s Life in New Zealand’ between June 2015 and February 2016. The Select Committee investigated 1) factors that contribute to the desire to end one’s life, 2) the effectiveness of services and support available to those who desire to end their own lives, 3) the attitudes of New Zealanders towards the ending of one’s life and the current legal …Read More
Originally published in The Age, 9 October 2017 by Marion Harris Most patients with incurable cancer battle to the end. They exhaust all evidence-based active treatment options and clinical trials before being told that supportive care measures are now best. A request to die is uncommon, and is often driven by poorly controlled pain or nausea, as well as fear, loss of function and hopelessness. Usually when pain and other …Read More
Rachael Wong is a lawyer from Auckland who is currently working as a legal consultant with the Law Reform Commission in Samoa. She has recently completed a Master of Bioethics and Health Law for which she wrote her dissertation on freedom of conscience in health care. She maintains that a health professional’s exercise of conscience is inseparable from their delivery of health care. Writing for First Things, Wesley J. Smith …Read More
Dr Samantha Murton, an NZHPA member and General Practitioner from Wellington, reflects on a recent death in her family. I was busily involved in our own personal experience of a gracious death with my Mother-in-Law. If I could say something now to the Health Select Committee on its Investigation into the Ending of One’s Life, it would be this. Knowing all that I know as a health professional, it was …Read More
Caroline Downey is a Kiwi currently based in London. In her submission to the Health Select Committee on the investigation into ending one’s life in New Zealand, she writes “we have to start talking about the problem of suicide in New Zealand – not the need for assisted suicide.” I oppose any legalisation of euthanasia or assisted suicide in New Zealand. On the 19th of October 2015, The Guardian published …Read More
Dr Lucia Mitchell is a General Practitioner and Palliative Care Doctor who works in Richmond, Nelson, New Zealand. She shares with us her submission to the Health Select Committee on the investigation into ending one’s life in New Zealand. I oppose any legalisation of euthanasia or assisted suicide in New Zealand. Death has in many ways been distanced from our daily lives and has become foreign, unfamiliar and feared. Health …Read More