Letters to Pig Island – Euthanasia Result
It is almost certain the Euthanasia Bill will pass.
Every single special vote would have to vote against it. That’s not going to happen.
We are a country who will allow you to kill yourself if you are in terminal pain, but won’t let you smoke a joint for that terminal pain. Surely this is peak Boomer political influence at its last gasp, from now on, every election will see them as a minority that can no longer dominate the ballot box or our culture.
Death Tax 2023 everyone.
Personally, I abstained in the Euthanasia referendum, I see how the State currently treats prisoners, the mentally ill, the disabled, state tenants and beneficiaries when they have a duty of care and Christ only knows what happens when that duty of care is removed.
However.
The Bill has been safeguarded as well as it can be and while I have real concerns about this, I don’t believe philosophically, ethically or morally I as a human being can deny my fellow citizen the right for them to end suffering in the last months of their life.
So I wrote ‘I abstain’ on my voting paper.
I genuinely hope that the sense of agency this provides gives those who are worried about their last days on earth some relief, but I also hope that this opens up a new debate about death in our culture because I think fear of pain and suffering, which can be managed by effective palliative care, has dominated this debate.
In a country that has been hypnotised culturally into the neoliberal mythology of the individual over all, we fear being reliant on one another, that our inability to clean ourself or feed ourselves in the last stages of life would be an indignity and embarrassment worse than death itself.
I’m certain many Alpha personalities (like the ones that drove this legislation), would consider such reliance for basic function to be a humiliation that robs them of the meaning of their entire life rather than seeing it as an extension of their loved ones who willingly enter service to nurse a loved one to death with the care such a moment calls for.
Death is an incredibly important part of the human experience and I feel the popularity of Euthanasia speaks more to our infamous kiwi emotional uptightness that fears reaching out.
Better to tick a box and sanitise death than feel anything.
Let us continue this discussion of death, let us see it as a moment that actually demands respect, that provides the space for goodbyes and forgiveness and mourning and celebration.
Let’s see all palliative care paid by the state, let’s have paid leave from work to nurse a loved one to death, let’s learn from Māori how they view death and their process of goodbye.
Let’s grow the experience of death and learn more about our own human condition.
If all we have granted here is a sterilised moment driven by embarrassment for needing to reach out, we are a more damaged people huddled frightened on Pig Island than I had ever feared.
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New Zealanders vote to be killed
Not all of us live in the North Island to be fair.
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Well as far as neo liberalism is concerned you can thank our main parties for consistently supporting it over the years and the MSM for incessantly promoting it.
The outcome on euthanasia was a good one as far as I’m concerned. Whether this so called govt does anything positive with it remains to be seen. To date their track record has been a long long way from being exemplary.
Ironically a dear friend just lost an adult child to a very rare and aggressive cancer today. He died peacefully and quietly at his home this morning, surrounded by a lot of love and support from family, receiving excellent Hospice palliative care to alleviate his pain.
I have mentioned this before, but I cannot support euthanizing a person, when this caring service is readily available to assist not only the patient, but also the family as well.
This is only the start. In the news last week.
The Dutch have had euthanasia for 19 years and every year the numbers of mentally ill people who are euthanased goes up. This is really frightening, I don’t get how you can be mentally ill and of sound mind to make the decision!
Martyn as you say you can knock someone off but you can’t smoke weed, how ludicrous is that.
We have got this from the ‘compassionate caring’ party Act whose proposals for those on benefits and low wages would make anyone tremble.
The Dutch government has approved plans to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children aged between one and 12.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said the rule change would prevent some children from “suffering hopelessly and unbearably”.
Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands for children older than 12, with mandatory consent from the patient and their parents.
It is also legal for babies up to a year old with parental consent.
Doctors in the Netherlands can no longer be prosecuted for carrying out euthanasia on dementia patients who have previously given written consent.
Previously, patients would need to confirm their request.
But on Tuesday the Dutch Supreme Court ruled this was no longer the case.
The decision comes after a doctor was taken to court for carrying out assisted suicide on a patient with Alzheimer’s, who had previously asked for the procedure in a statement.
Prosecutors said the doctor did not properly consult the unnamed 74-year-old. But the family supported the doctor’s decision, and she was acquitted of any wrongdoing last year.
BBC Netherlands backs euthanasia for terminally ill children under-12
14th Oct 2020: The Dutch government has approved plans to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children aged between one and 12.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said the rule change would prevent some children from “suffering hopelessly and unbearably”.
Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands for children older than 12, with mandatory consent from the patient and their parents. It is also legal for babies up to a year old with parental consent.
But there is no provision for those aged between one and 12 who are terminally ill.
“The current laws would not need to be changed, the health minister said, but doctors would be exempt from prosecution for carrying out an approved euthanasia on someone in this age range.”
Belgium brought in child euthanasia in 2014: Belgium parliament votes through child euthanasia
“It may be requested by terminally ill children who are in great pain and also have parental consent.
Opponents argue children cannot make such a difficult decision.”
Belgium legalised euthanasia for adults 12 years earlier, in 2002.
Euthanasia, Dutch court expands law on dementia cases BBC 21st April 2020
The decision stems from a court case involving a 64-year-old doctor who carried out the assisted suicide in 2016.
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s four years before she died, the unnamed patient wrote a statement saying that she wanted to be euthanised before entering a care home, but adding that she wanted to decide “while still in my senses and when I think the time is right”.
Before she was taken into care, a doctor decided that assisted suicide should be administered based on her prior statement. This was confirmed by two separate doctors independently.
When the day came to end the woman’s life, a sedative was put in her coffee and she lost consciousness.
But the woman then woke up and had to be held down by her daughter and husband while the process was finished. Full article at the link.
Michal I totally agree. When Seymour was yabbering away about how we now have “a new, kinder New Zealand”, in his weird creepy voice, it looked and sounded like the opening scene for a horror movie. (Stephen King eat your heart out.)
Yes, this is just the beginning. The “Halloween” season has taken on new meaning. I am desperately sad that Aotearoa has ended up in this place.
This bill was designed by the bean counters at Treasury, to rush ppensioners to their death as fast as possible so their pension is no longer another state outgiong payment the treasury is keen not to pay at all, so it was always about lowering the Government financial liability.
also we are very woried that any choice to put terminal patients to death is now kept confidential not to be opened to inspectionby famaly or any other person or agency who wants to check on how the billl kis used.
Treasury is capable of identifying that less than 100 people per year within 6 months of death (half not yet on super) offers little saving in super payments.
Don’t be ridiculous Cleangreen, I suppose you think George Soros is behind it as well and Treasury are going to harvest blood of dead babies to help him live longer.
We now have a situation where the government can choose whether or not to pay for drugs to extend someone’s (and quality of) life by a few years. Without those expensive drugs the latter person is now qualified for much cheaper government sanctioned euthanasia.
Sounds like a massively worrying, deeply toxic, society changing, conflict of interest to me.
I can’t understand why anyone thought this euthanasia bill was necessary.
It isn’t as if it has ever been difficult for kiwis who are sick to knock themselves off.
I’ve known a few people who have decided that was the best option, they’ve done it and there was no blowback – people understand.
AFAIK the only prosecutions over this have been from types who made a big issue about it after they had helped mum. dad or whoever to slip the veil.
On the other hand I have also witnessed private ‘hospitals’ knock off a human who hadn’t asked for it, but the bill payer, tired of blowing more than $1000 per week on their former partner, did ask.
This isn’t just a slippery slope we’ve chosen, it is a needless journey.
Meanwhile the same types who agreed that is is OK to knock off an aged relative because his/her continued existence has become inconvenient, simultaneously decided that none of us have the right to have a puff if that need/desire should arise.
Hypocrisy much, every person who voted yes to euthanasia, no to pot needs to be mustered onto the next available flight to england where they will fit in as snug as bug in a rug.