{"id":257213,"date":"2021-11-15T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=257213"},"modified":"2021-11-15T01:27:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T07:27:49","slug":"group-new-zealand-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/group-new-zealand-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Group organizes to fight New Zealand’s disturbing new assisted suicide law"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

As New Zealand\u2019s problematic assisted suicide law came into effect on November 7, a group of alarmed citizens is stepping up where their government hasn\u2019t, to protect vulnerable people in their country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#DefendNZ, which <\/span>describes<\/span><\/a> itself as \u201ca grassroots movement of diverse people \u2013 young and old, of all ethnicities and backgrounds, and from a full range of political and religious persuasions,\u201d relaunched the same day the law went into effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday our nation has undergone one of the most seismic shifts in law, healthcare, and medical ethics in its entire history. As of this moment, some New Zealanders now wield the state-sanctioned legal power to deliberately end the lives of others, or to assist in their suicides,\u201d said #DefendNZ spokesperson Henoch Kloosterboer, according to <\/span>SCOOP<\/span><\/a>. \u201cTo think that there will be no harms that will come from this is to be unaware of the many problems unfolding overseas in the limited number of places that have also legalized these practices \u2013 and this includes the harm of wrongful killings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s End of Life Choice Act (EOLCA) went into effect after having been <\/span>passed by New Zealand\u2019s legislature<\/span><\/a> in 2019 and ratified by a referendum in October 2020 that one New Zealand pro-life group <\/span>pointed out<\/span><\/a> was based on widespread public misperceptions of what the law would entail. The country\u2019s EOLCA has been criticized on many fronts, including <\/span>under-training<\/span><\/a> doctors in end-of-life care, exacerbating the lack of palliative care available in the country, and providing few safeguards to protect the most vulnerable.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Are assisted suicide practitioners experimenting on vulnerable patients?<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Act creates a new legal class of tens of thousands of people in New Zealand who are deemed by the state to be living lives so meaningless that the state is happy to condone and\/or carry out their killing. Instead of ending a person\u2019s suffering, it will end the person who suffers. The law is flawed. Its protections are flimsy. And its accountability mechanisms are feeble. Together we must protect, expose and improve to #DefendNZ,\u201d asserts #DefendNZ\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Health\u2019s Assisted Dying Service claims that the law applies to \u201cNew Zealanders aged 18 or over who have a terminal illness that is likely to end their life within six months,\u201d according to the ministry\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>. The Assisted Dying Service claims that the law has \u201cstrict eligibility criteria to have an assisted death,\u201d and the process requires \u201cspecific steps, medical assessments, and important safeguards.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet according to <\/span>Euthanasia-Free NZ<\/span><\/a>, the EOLCA has among the flimsiest protections of euthanasia laws around the world. The law does not require physicians to check for depression, and doctors do not have to validate mental competency on the day a patient receives his or her lethal dose. Unlike many euthanasia laws, the EOLCA does not require a waiting period; a patient could be euthanized in as little as four days after requesting assisted suicide<\/em>, all without needing to tell any loved ones. There is no requirement for a patient to receive treatment or palliative care first, and no requirement for a patient to consult with a specialist for medical treatment prior to being approved for euthanasia. Under the EOLCA, no independent witnesses are required at any stage of the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#DefendNZ\u2019s mission is focused on protesting the law, raising awareness about its dangers, and ultimately changing hearts and minds. #DefendNZ\u2019s mission is to \u201cprotect the vulnerable from the inadequacies and risks created by the End of Life Choice Act (EOLCA),\u201d by educating \u201cpatients, families, medical practitioners and wider society,\u201d according to the group\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>. The group also seeks to \u201cexpose abuses, illegal practices, systematic failures, misinformation, and coercive marketing\u201d as well as \u201cimprove authentic end-of-life care by lobbying the Government to make the Act safer and connecting people to support organisations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

#DefendNZ\u2019s website warns of the unintended consequences of assisted suicide laws like EOLCA by highlighting the very real dangers for people with disabilities, the elderly, and those with terminal illnesses. The group also argues that EOLCA will exacerbate ableism, ageism, and elder abuse. <\/span>Examples<\/span><\/a> of these kinds of tragic abuses are common in countries that have legalized assisted suicide. Statistics from the Netherlands showed that 208 people with mental disabilities were euthanized in 2020, as Live Action News\u00a0<\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> \u2014 a number that has <\/span>continued to increase<\/span><\/a> yearly, up from 12 people killed due to mental disability in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome may have wrongly assumed that this debate was over now that the EOLCA has come into force, when what this actually means is that our advocacy for the vulnerable put at risk by this law is more critical than ever before,\u201d said Kloosterboer, according to SCOOP.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As New Zealand\u2019s problematic assisted suicide law came into effect on November 7, a group of alarmed citizens is stepping up where their government hasn\u2019t, to protect vulnerable people in their country.\u00a0 #DefendNZ, which describes itself as \u201ca grassroots movement of diverse people \u2013 young and old, of all ethnicities and backgrounds, and from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":186867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,4,3473],"tags":[14152,1303,14151,498,14153,3890],"yoast_head":"\nGroup organizes to fight New Zealand's disturbing new assisted suicide law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As New Zealand\u2019s problematic assisted suicide law came into effect, a group of citizens is stepping up to protect vulnerable people in their country.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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