• The Act only requires a doctor to “do their best to ensure that the person expresses their wish free from pressure.” However, the Act fails to outline how this happens. Doctors are not trained to detect coercion and are further limited in their ability to detect coercion because, unlike the Netherlands, they cannot interview others without the patient’s permission.
• Requests for an assisted death are often motivated by depression, something that is also extremely difficult to detect. There is no mandatory screening for depression in the Act.
• In the Netherlands and Belgium, disabled people and people who are mentally ill were not initially eligible. However, assisted death is now offered to people with mental illnesses and dementia, and to disabled people. The same changes will likely happen here.
The EOLC Act is badly drafted and seriously flawed. Whatever one’s views about the idea of euthanasia, it is not ‘compassion’ to vote for a dangerous law.See:
www.riskylaw.nz/www.votesafe.nz/ww.carealliance.org,nz/www.nathaniel.org.nz
2020-10-02