Right-to-die plan has safeguards says MP

A law giving terminally ill people the right to end their lives would have built-in safeguards, its champion says.

New Zealand First MP Peter Brown told a public meeting in Christchurch that under his Death with Dignity Bill, patients would make their own decisions.

Some among the 30 mainly elderly people in the audience said the bill would result in some people being pressured into ending their lives.

"The bill is about me making a decision for me; the individual makes the decision - if you like, the patient calls the shots," Mr Brown replied.

He said several hurdles had been included in the bill to ensure any terminally or incurably ill person who wanted to end his or her life was making the right decision.

Under the terms of the bill, which is before Parliament and still subject to change, a person would have to get the consent of a doctor, a second medical consultant, a psychiatrist and a counsellor before their life could legally be ended.

"This bill is about giving people who want it the opportunity of ending their lives earlier if they cannot cope with continuing for one reason or another," Mr Brown said.

He wanted the final decision on whether the bill became law to be made by the public through a referendum.

Mr Brown became a politician two years after his wife died of cancer. But he said he did not support voluntary euthanasia until much later.

"Now I'm doing my damndest to take this bill to the select committee so we can at least debate this topic."

- NZPA