{"id":335646,"date":"2025-08-03T13:52:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=335646"},"modified":"2025-08-01T19:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:53:16","slug":"report-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-deaths-skyrocket-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/report-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-deaths-skyrocket-in-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Euthanasia and assisted suicide deaths skyrocket in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Right to Life UK<\/a>) In New Zealand, cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide have increased by 37.21% for the year April 2024 to March 2025 compared with the same period the previous year, according to\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0released by the New Zealand Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n

There were a total of 472 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand from 1 April 2024 to 30 March 2025, a 37.21% increase from the same period the previous year, when there were 344 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the country.<\/p>\n

The number of cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide has increased by 43.9% since the period of April 2022 to March 2023, the first full year of the law coming into effect in November 2021.<\/p>\n

In the year 2024\/25, the 472 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicides\u00a0accounted<\/a>\u00a0for 1.25% of all deaths in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

12% of applicants<\/a>\u00a0reported having a disability, and\u00a0one in five applicants (21%)<\/a>\u00a0were not receiving palliative care at the time of application.<\/p>\n

Only 19 applicants<\/a>\u00a0had a psychiatric assessment to check for competence to make an informed decision about assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

Only 1 in 10 applicants (9.57%<\/a>) had a neurological condition, a relatively small proportion, despite the need for people with neurological conditions to access assisted suicide or euthanasia\u00a0regularly being<\/a>\u00a0referred to<\/a>\u00a0by campaigners<\/a>\u00a0as a key reason for introducing assisted suicide and euthanasia.<\/p>\n

The report also reveals a decline in the number of doctors willing to be involved in assisted suicide and euthanasia. The number of practitioners on the Support and Consultation for End of Life Choice (SCENZ) Group list, which connects patients with doctors willing to assess or carry out assisted deaths, fell from 148 in March 2023 to\u00a0126<\/a>\u00a0in March 2025.<\/p>\n

While doctors can provide assisted suicide or euthanasia to their own patients, those treating individuals outside their care must be on this list. The shrinking numbers have led to reports of doctors\u00a0travelling long distances<\/a>\u00a0to assess patients, raising concerns about discomfort with assisting suicides among healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0also reveals a clear ethnic disparity in those accessing assisted suicide. New Zealand European\/P\u0101keh\u0101 applicants accounted for 79.92% of applications, while they represent\u00a067.8% of the population<\/a>. In contrast, M\u0101ori applicants made up only 4.97% of applications, despite representing\u00a017.8% of the population<\/a>, Asian applicants made up 3.56% of applications, despite representing 17.30% of the population, and applications from Pacific peoples made up 0.56% of applications, despite representing 8.90% of the population.<\/p>\n

Of the 472 people who died,\u00a095.34%<\/a>\u00a0(450) died by euthanasia, where a doctor or nurse ended a patient\u2019s life either through ingestion (9) or through injection (441). 22 people (4.66%) ended their lives through assisted suicide. The key legal distinction between the two is who carries out the act: in euthanasia, it is a third party who ends the person\u2019s life, while in assisted suicide, the person ends their own life.<\/p>\n

Attempts to expand the law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the\u00a0current law<\/a>\u00a0in New Zealand, a person can end their life by assisted suicide or euthanasia if they are thought to have six months left to live.<\/p>\n

However, there have been attempts to expand the law beyond the current six-month prognosis limit. Last year, ACT Party MP Todd Stephenson tabled a\u00a0Members Bill<\/a>\u00a0to remove this.<\/p>\n

ACT Party leader David Seymour MP also called for the six-month requirement to be\u00a0scrapped<\/a>\u00a0in 2022, only a year after the law came into effect in 2021. Astonishingly, this is from the same David Seymour who, before the Bill to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia became law in New Zealand,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the NZ Parliament that opponents\u2019 claims that the law would be expanded in the future were a \u201cslippery slope fallacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia by popular vote in a\u00a0binding referendum<\/a>\u00a0on 19 September 2020, and this came into force on 7 November 2021.<\/p>\n

Polling<\/a>\u00a0at the time suggests that as many as 80% of voters were unclear about what they were voting for, thinking that the law would permit physicians to turn off life support. This, in fact, was already legal and not the subject of the referendum.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said \u201cThe significant increase in euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand found in the most recent report is a cause for alarm. New Zealand appears to be following the same trend as other countries that have introduced euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation in recent years \u2013 a steep year-on-year increase in deaths through assisted suicide and euthanasia\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience of New Zealand should serve as a portent of what we can likely expect in England and Wales should Kim Leadbeater\u2019s assisted suicide Bill pass the Lords\u201d.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This article was published at\u00a0Right to Life UK<\/a>\u00a0and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow Live Action News on\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Instagram<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Right to Life UK) In New Zealand, cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide have increased by 37.21% for the year April 2024 to March 2025 compared with the same period the previous year, according to\u00a0data\u00a0released by the New Zealand Ministry of Health. There were a total of 472 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":192007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEuthanasia and assisted suicide deaths skyrocket in New Zealand, report shows<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The number of cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand has increased by 43.9% since the period of April 2022 to March 2023.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/new-zealand-37-surge-in-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-deaths-in-one-year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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