In 2020, almost two-thirds of Kiwis voted to legalise assisted dying. Photo / File
New Zealanders took to the polls in 2020 and voted in favour of legalising assisted dying.
The End of Life Choice Act 2019 came into force on November 7, 2021 following a public referendum. Under the legislation, the Ministry of Health must review the Act’s operation within three years and every five years after that.
The review concludes next month and will consider how well the Act is operating and achieving its purposes.
Crucially, it will not consider changes that would go beyond the purposes and intent of the current Act, such as changes to eligibility settings or providing for the use of advanced directives.
NZ Herald health reporter Isaac Davison told The Front Page any changes to the Act will need to be proposed through members’ bills.
This means any proposed changes will be subject to the full parliamentary process, which includes opportunities for public input at select committee.
“That’s because they believe assisted dying is one of those issues that should be a conscience issue that MPs should be able to vote on personally, rather than along party lines.
“While David Seymour’s led the process so far, he’s a minister now, and ministers can’t do private members bills. So, if change is going to happen it’ll be left to a private members bill tabled by another person.
“Even if there are strong recommendations there are quite a few barriers to it. If it goes to a private member’s bill, and one has been drafted by Act MP Todd Stephenson, it has to get through the ballot — and that could take years,” Davison said.
A change some want to see is the eligibility for assisted dying only being available to terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live.
It’s a compromise made during the parliamentary process to appease the Green Party to ensure David Seymour got the votes needed to pass the bill.
Davison said the rule had become a lightning rod for criticism.
“Predicting death is an imprecise science. When I’ve talked to doctors about it, they say you can predict most of the time when a patient will die within two weeks. You can also predict when they’re going to die within 12 months.
“Between those two is sort of this window of uncertainty where it’s quite hard to predict death, especially for non-cancer conditions,” he said.
From November 2021 to June this year, there have been 864 assisted deaths — about 20% of applicants are deemed ineligible.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about what the review could tell us - and other potential issues that could be raised about assisted dying in Aotearoa.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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