Press release from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of NZ

The Australian state of Victoria has made a significant move towards allowing doctors to help seriously sick people end their lives peacefully, Dr Jack Havill, President of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand, said Friday.

He welcomed recommendations for a law change by a Victorian Parliamentary Committee Enquiry into End of Life Choices released this week and noted that California has todaybecome the largest state in America to give terminally ill patients the right to die with dignity.

Dr Havill said the New Zealand Parliament’s Health Select Committee which is currently holding a public inquiry into the issue of assisted dying could not ignore these developments overseas.

He said the Victorian committee had recommended the state government to introduce legislation allowing terminally ill competent adults suffering from a serious and incurable condition causing unendurable and unbearable suffering that cannot be relieved in a manner the patient deemed tolerable to be provided assistance to die.

The committee said that in the vast majority of cases a doctor should prescribe a lethal drug which the patient may take without further assistance. Where the patient was physically unable to take the drug themselves, a doctor should be allowed to assist the patient to die.

The committee made its report after considering over 1000 submissions on the issue and visiting states that allowed physician-assisted dying.

Dr Havill said its extensive report included recommendations on the provision of palliative care, continuous palliative sedation, advance care planning, withdrawal of life support, and clarified legal aspects around end-of-life care.

ENDS

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