Right to Life questions the findings of this latest Horizon poll conducted on behalf of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society
NZ. The question was worded to obtain the result the Voluntary Euthanasia Society wanted.
The Horizon poll found 75 per cent of the 1300 people surveyed “favoured a law change to allow the terminally ill and
people with irreversible unbearable suffering to be helped to end their lives peacefully.”
The poll question disguises the reality that euthanasia entails a doctor giving a lethal injection to a patient or
assisting in the patients suicide. There is a considerable difference between a doctor killing a patient and ethical and
lawful palliative care, where a doctor provides medical treatment to allow a patient to die peacefully.
It is incorrect for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to claim that this poll is proof that the majority of New
Zealanders support the law being changed to allow a doctor to kill a patient or assist in their suicide.
Right to Life believes that the majority of New Zealanders reject euthanasia, this is proven by the careful analysis of
the unprecedented 21,277 written submissions made to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee that is currently dealing
with the euthanasia petition of the Hon Maryan Street. A careful analysis of all the written submissions, revealed that
16,411, 77 per cent were opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. This analysis remains as the most authentic poll on
the attitude of New Zealanders to assisted suicide and doctors giving a lethal injection to a patient. Members of
Parliament should not be enticed by this misleading poll to support the contentious End of Life Choice bill of David
Seymour MP, leader of ACT.