Media Release 21 September 2024
Right to Life believes that it is the government’s intention to continue the defunding of palliative care in hospices in order to encourage vulnerable patients to choose a lethal injection or assisted suicide in preference to expensive palliative care.
The Registrar of Assisted Dying, Dr Kristin Good, revealed in her annual report for 2024 that nearly 25% of all patients requesting to have their lives ended by doctors with a lethal injection or to be assisted in suicide, were not receiving any palliative care. This is an appalling situation and has been the case since the commencement of the state killing of dying patients on 7 November 2022.
Right to Life believes that dying patients are entitled to 24-hour, 7-day-a-week palliative care, the report of the Registrar of Assisted Dying confirms that these patients are probably being deprived of the palliative care that they deserve and need.
The report of the Registrar raises important questions:-
• Why was palliative care not accessible for these patients?
• Did these patients stop receiving palliative care and decide to have their life terminated by a doctor?
There have been 1015 applications from patients from 7 November 2022, to 31 December 2023, to be killed by their doctor, so why were more than 250 of these dying patients not receiving palliative care?
Right to Life is disappointed that the government continues to refuse to fully fund palliative care in hospices in New Zealand. Hospices are in financial crisis and will be forced to reduce services to the dying.
In the 2021/22 year it cost $186 million to fund hospices in New Zealand, of which $92 million was funded by the government and a further $94 million was raised by hospices in their community, with raffles, cake stalls and op shops.
It is cheaper to kill patients than to care for them. The cost for the government of killing a patient in accordance with the End of Life Choice Act, is approximately $1087, for a total of approximately $500 000 per year.
Right to Life wrote to the Director General of Health, Dr Diana Sarfati, in 2022 and asked her for information on the reasons why 25% of patients who sought the termination of their life were not receiving palliative care. The Ministry responded that this information was not collected, was not required and that there were no plans to collect this information in the future.
Right to Life believes that the Ministry of Health does not want to collect this important information, because they do not want the community to know how our most vulnerable citizens are being treated. If the government really cares for dying patients it should fully fund palliative care in hospices.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.