New Zealand’s euthanasia or assisted dying act

As per preliminary referendum results, a majority of voters in New Zealand have voted in favour of the End of Life Choice Act 2019. As people voted in the general elections, they also had the option to vote in two referendums.

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Key-Points

The End of Life Choice Act 2019 is meant to give certain terminally ill people the option of requesting medical assistance to end their lives and to establish a lawful process for assisting eligible persons who are able to exercise that option.

The Act was passed in November 2019, but requires that it gets at least 50 per cent of the votes in the 2020 referendum to be effective.

As per the Act, assisted dying means when a person’s doctor or nurse gives them medication to relieve their suffering by bringing on death or when a person takes the medication themselves.

Therefore, the act interprets assisted dying as referring to both euthanasia and assisted suicide.

While the former refers to the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to end their suffering, the latter refers to assisting a person to kill themselves.

A person is not eligible for assisted dying if they are suffering from a mental disorder or a mental illness, if they have a disability of any kind or they are of advanced age.

The opponents of the Act maintain that it lacks oversight and safeguards and have pointed out issues with the eligibility criteria such as the age limit of 18 years and the “arbitrary” nature of the 6-month prognosis.

One of the referendums was on cannabis legalisation and control, which over 53 per cent of the voters voted against. The second referendum asked the public to vote on whether the End of Life Choice Act 2019 should come into force.