Media Release 10 October 2024
Suicide is self-murder, it is intrinsically evil, it is part of the culture of death, and it is always wrong and is never justified. Suicide gives great offence to God, the author of life. It violates the fifth commandment of our Creator; “ Thou shalt not kill”. We violate this commandment at our peril.
The first duty of those who govern us is to defend life and uphold the sanctity of life and not to preside over our destruction.
Right to Life believes that our government is afflicted with a spiritual blindness that prevents them from recognising that there is a conflict of interest, on one hand, commendably seeking to prevent suicide with its Suicide Prevention Strategy, and on the other hand funding assisted suicide as a health service under the End of Life Choice Act.
There were 538 reported suicides in New Zealand in the 2021/2022 year. In 2020 New Zealand had the second highest youth suicide rate among the 41 nation members of the OECD.
“10th September was World Suicide Prevention Day, a time to reflect on New Zealand’s confronting suicide statistics”, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey stated.
“Every death by suicide is a tragedy – a tragedy that affects far too many of our families and communities in New Zealand. We must do better as a country to address this,” Mr Doocey said. “The current action plan is coming to an end later this year, it is now appropriate to refresh the focus of New Zealand’s suicide prevention efforts to best meet the current challenges.”
“Achieving our overarching vision of a future where there is no suicide in New Zealand will not happen overnight, but I am confident this next action plan will move us closer to our overarching goal.”
Right to Life would like to learn how Minister Doocey, who voted in support of assisted suicide which was incorporated in the End of Life Choice Bill in 2019, really supports the Suicide Prevention Strategy, when his government supports the state funded killing of vulnerable patients by doctors with a lethal injection or assisting in suicide?
Right to Life also would like to know how the Minister will achieve his objective of a future where there is no suicide in New Zealand, when he has recently disbanded the Suicide Prevention team at the Ministry of Health, and delegated the work to other busy staff in the mental health area?
The Minister continues to give high priority to promoting access to doctors to kill their patients with a lethal injection or assisting them in suicide, through a special unit of 5.5 fulltime staff dedicated to overseeing the promotion of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, provided by the End of Life Choice Act.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.
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