Media Release 18 April 2022
The government of Jacinda Ardern has authorised and funded the killing of sixty-six vulnerable patients in the period between the End of Life Choice coming into force on the 7 November 2021 and 31 March 2022. These patients were killed by a doctor with a lethal injection or assisted in their suicide.
The government pays doctors up to $3,000 for each patient they remove from the health system and terminate. Treasury would confirm that it is cheaper to kill patients than to care for them.
The government promotes euthanasia as giving patients a right to choose. This ‘right’ will ultimately become a duty to die when we become a burden on the state Right to Life believes that the End of Life Choice Act actually empowers doctors to kill their patients, violates their medical ethics and avoids prosecution for murder. Doctors who wish to be trained serial killers become the most dangerous men in the land.
This quarterly report should fill our souls with terror and apprehension as we consider living in a state where the government is prepared to decide who should live and who shall be killed, all under the guise of a health service. When the state assumes the right to decide whose lives are of value and who may be killed, we are living in a tyrannical state.
The Ministry of Health’s Registrar [assisted dying] Dr Kristin Good, has provided her first quarterly report on the assisted dying service. The service activity is from 7th November 2021 to 31st March 2022. The report raises many important questions.
There were 205 people who had applied for this “service. ” 59 people were still in the process of assessment, 81 people did not continue the process due to being ineligible, withdrawing or having died.
The ethnicity of those who applied was;
- European/ Pakeha 162
- Maori, 12
- Pacific, nil
- Asian 5
Nearly 50 patients had their lives terminated at home, more than 10 patients in retirement homes, 133 patients were suffering from Cancer and 164 patients were receiving palliative care.
There are 130 doctors on the Ministry’s list who are prepared to administer a lethal injection to their patients. This is in violation of the ethics of the World Medical Association that prohibits euthanasia. It also violates the fifth commandment of our Creator, “Thou shalt not kill,” we violate this commandment at our peril.
Do we want our medical profession to accept the killing of patients as a treatment option? Would you entrust your family into the hands of a doctor who was prepared to kill you as a treatment option? Will you accept that a condition for entry to medical school is a willingness to kill your patients or assist in their suicide?
Right To Life is committed to the repeal of the End of Life Choice Act 2019 . We will seek to expose it for the threat that it is to the most vulnerable. We will vigorously oppose the expected attempts of the ACT Party to extend the scope of the killing to include those with a disability and the inclusion of advance directives. We will not rest until this evil legislation is revoked.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life
Could I point out that it is not only the Ardern government that is at fault here? I’m sorry, but does anyone hear Chris Luxon, the supposedly ‘pro-life’ leader of the National Party defend the right to life of the unborn child? No. He has stated that he won’t reverse the Abortion Legislation Act and also voted for the repressive Safe Areas Act legislation. As did David Seymour of the ACT Party, who, let us never forget, was the chief architect of the End of Life Choices Act, for which much of the National Opposition also voted? It’s all very well to attack the Ardern government over its dire abortion record. However, why does the National Party expect us to believe that it’s any better when it comes to abortion and euthanasia? If Labour is voted out, then the alternative is probably a National/ACT government in 2023. Does anyone seriously believe that Seymour won’t try to liberalise the End of Life Choices Act to encompass more and more vulnerable people, given his radical libertarian anti-life agenda?