The Euthanasia debate is a complex one. I have gone through the various articles published about it last week and have organised them into two posts to present both sides of the argument. This post contains the articles in support of Euthanasia.
Seymour brushes off opposition to euthanasia from 1000 doctors
“Only 6 percent of doctors have actually signed this letter. Many other doctors are in favour of choice, but haven’t felt the need to take out expensive advertising in a newspaper,”[…]
“The relationship between doctors and patients actually improves when everything is out in the open and assisted dying is a legal process.”
Newshub
Checkpoint: Willie Jackson: Why I’ll vote in favour of euthanasia bill
Labour MP Willie Jackson says his mother’s illness has led him to vote in favour of the End of Life Choice bill next week, despite her views against euthanasia.
[…] “I don’t think I’ll support it right to the end, but I think it deserves more debate, more korero.”
He said he was concerned that a potential law could be abused and some people may receive it against their will.
[…] “She would never have supported euthanasia. She’s a person who always believed in life and whanau and us choosing,”
[…] “But my mother didn’t know what she was going to go through didn’t she?”
RNZ
’Just do it’: Terminal patient pleads politicians to pass euthanasia Bill
Dave Mullan is a former Methodist preacher who has been living with prostate cancer for 18 years, but medication to stop the spread is no longer working.
[…] He made an impassioned plea on Newshub Nation this morning for politicians to support the End of Life Choice Bill as it heads to its second reading in parliament this week.
[…] Mullan dismissed the idea that advanced palliative care could take the place of new legislation for euthansia. He says he wants to have the option to end his life when he is “screaming with pain and it is not being dealt with”.
Newshub
Lecretia would have been pleased with the End of Life Choice Bill
Palliative care is a wonderful thing, but like medicine, it is not perfect. Justice David Collins, in his ruling on Lecretia’s case, accepted this fact based on the evidence presented by both parties. So the question becomes: what do we do if we know that palliative care cannot deal with all suffering? Do we just accept that some people will suffer awful deaths, turn away from them, and decide that those people are just unlucky? Or do we listen to them, show compassion, and allow those people to have a choice about how they die?
The End of Life Choice Bill offers people that choice, which I believe is the only humane thing to do.
Stuff
