Press Release from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of NZ

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society defended Saturday the rights of Lecretia Seales’s husband Matt Vickers and Auckland University researcher Dr Pam Oliver to speak at an international conference on euthanasia in Amsterdam in May.

Rejecting criticism from the anti-euthanasia body Care Alliance, VES President Dr Jack Havill accused it of attacking individuals because its constant stream of “lies and false information” about medically-assisted dying overseas was increasingly seen as misleading.

Matt Vickers, whose terminally ill wife died last year after failing to get a High Court judgement allowing her doctor to end her life peacefully and painlessly, has confirmed that he is considering an invitation to speak at the Euthanasia 2016 conference.

Dr Oliver and a fellow researcher from Auckland University's School of Medicine who surveyed doctors and nurses last year on their experience and opinions on euthanasia, is scheduled to speak at the conference about "improving the legislation to reduce barriers to assisted dying".

The Care Alliance claimed their attendance indicated support for an extreme proposal floated by some campaigners in the Netherlands for everyone over the age of 70 to have access to a suicide pill.

Dr Havill said this was not part of VES New Zealand’s policy. He said it was “nonsense” to suggest that speaking at the conference endorsed the varied views of others who would be there.

He also rejected claims that Dr Oliver breached ethics by not reporting her membership of VES when conducting the survey of medical professionals’ attitudes to assisted dying, which was funded through the government's Health Research Council.

Dr Oliver said the University of Auckland's Human Participants Ethics Committee had cleared her and her colleague after a complaint by the Care Alliance, but it has now complained to the national Health Research Ethics Committee.

ENDS

© Scoop Media