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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Lecretia Seales' widower included in videos supporting ACT's euthanasia bill

By Tess Nichol
Reporter·NZ Herald·
18 Feb, 2018 11:30 PM2 mins to read

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Rachel Rijpma on the End of Life Choice Bill. / 90 Seconds Media NZ

ACT leader David Seymour is launching a video campaign featuring Kiwis who support his End of Life Choice Bill.

The five videos making up the #MyLifeMyChoice campaign include one with Lecretia Seales' widow, Matt Vickers, and New Zealander of the year Dr Lance O'Sullivan.

Seales, a Wellington lawyer dying of brain cancer, asked the High Court in March 2015 to give her the legal right for a doctor to help end her life.

She wanted the right to choose to not die a painful death. On June 5, soon after being told that her court bid was unsuccessful, Seales died of her illness. She was 42.

• READ MORE: Matt Vickers: Lecretia would have appreciated the timing of End of Life Choice Bill

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Matt Vickers (right) with wife Lecretia Seales on their wedding day. Vickers features in a campaign launching today to support ACT's euthanasia bill. Photo / Supplied
Matt Vickers (right) with wife Lecretia Seales on their wedding day. Vickers features in a campaign launching today to support ACT's euthanasia bill. Photo / Supplied

The remaining three feature Kiwis suffering from terminal illness who support Seymour's bill.

Today a video of Rachel Rijpma, who has Huntington's disease, was the first to go live.

Huntington's disease is inherited and causes the progressive degeneration of the brain's nerve cells.

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Sufferers often sway continually and have trouble moving and speaking.

In the short video, Rijpma says she wants to know when she will die and have her family around her, rather than dying from choking or pneumonia.

"My life, my choice," she says.

Her video and the others will be promoted heavily on social media by the ACT party.

• READ MORE: Euthanasia bill passes first reading in Parliament

Seymour said he hoped Kiwis would be moved by the "courage and determination" of those featured in the videos.

"I certainly was," he said.

Act Party leader and Epsom MP David Seymour says he hopes Kiwis will be moved by the videos as he was. Photo / Andrew Warner
Act Party leader and Epsom MP David Seymour says he hopes Kiwis will be moved by the videos as he was. Photo / Andrew Warner

"The goal of this campaign is to continue highlighting the inadequacy of our current laws as a select committee deliberates on my End of Life Choice Bill.

"Ultimately this campaign is about providing choice and compassion to those suffering at the end of their lives."

• READ MORE: Lecretia Seales - a courageous campaign

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As well as Rijpma, Vickers and O'Sullivan, the videos feature short speeches by blood cancer sufferer Bobbie Carroll and David Seymour (not the ACT party leader), who has Motor Neurone Disease.

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