Right to Life New Zealand

Upholding the sanctity of Human life and Standing Up for the Vulnerable

Parliament Betrays our Community; refuses to Govern for the Common Good

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Media Release 23rd October 2019

Parliament tonight has shamefully abdicated its responsibility to legislate to protect the vulnerable in society by voting 63 to 57 in favour of a referendum to decide the fate of the Seymour End of Life Choice Bill. When such important matters as life and death are at stake, Right to Life believes that Parliament must itself take responsibility for such decisions, rather than abdicating that responsibility.

The referendum will be conducted at the general election in 2020. Right to Life believes that if the bill passes its third reading in November, the media will continue to misinform the public We believe that they will lead a concerted campaign to persuade our community to support assisted suicide and euthanasia, by voting yes to the referendum.

Parliament has a duty to legislate for the protection of the most vulnerable members of our community the aged, the terminally ill and the disabled. Right to Life commends those Members who voted to defend life by voting to oppose a binding referendum. Right to Life asks if Members who voted for a referendum in Parliament are in Parliament at all. If they are reluctant to take responsibility to protect us, why are they there at all?

The motion for a referendum was moved by Jenny Marcroft of NZ First who declared that if Parliament did not support a referendum, NZ First would vote against the bill, at its third reading. The Hon Maggie Barry in her impassioned  address in Parliament stated that this bill was a “kill bill”, that it was poorly worded and that it was disguised killing under the guise of choice and compassion. The Hon Nick Smith in his moving address said that the bill was “unsound, unsafe and dangerous.”

It is also shameful that Parliament refused to support the amendment of the Hon Tim MacIndoe  to change the name of the  End of Life Choice Bill to the “Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Bill”. The name of the bill is intended to mislead and hide its purpose, which is to allow doctors to assist in the suicide of their patients or to kill them by giving them a lethal injection.

Right to Life earnestly requests Parliament promote a culture of life and oppose a culture of death by voting to defeat this dangerous anti-life EOLCB, on the 13th November.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Prime Minister Applauded for Opposing Euthanasia Referendum

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Right to Life applauds the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern for her leadership in upholding the right of Parliament to make laws rather than abdicating that responsibility to the public in a referendum. The issues surrounding euthanasia and in particular the ill-conceived and life threatening End of Life Choice bill, (ELOCB), are still very poorly understood by a great many people.

The Prime Minister rightly disagrees with the Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters, who is demanding that a binding referendum be held as a condition of continuing support from NZ First for this bill, which has the full support of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister was quoted in the NZ Herald as saying, “My view is that a referendum isn’t required to ensure that the voice of New Zealanders has been heard and to reflect the will of Parliament and the people they represent,” she said.

“I will be voting for the bill to continue as it stands.”

Right to Life urges Parliament to support the Prime Minister in opposing an amendment expected to be proposed by David Seymour, or Winston Peters to make the EOLCB subject to a binding referendum.

Euthanasia is about doctors killing their patients or assisting in their suicide, it is intrinsically evil, no referendum can legitimise that which is evil. The prohibition against taking the life of another human being is the foundation of the law and medicine. It is always wrong to kill another innocent human being. The approval of the community, even in a referendum, can never make murder acceptable. A referendum in this regard, is an attempt to seduce and implicate the whole community in the murder of the vulnerable. The most fundamental medical ethic of not killing or helping patients kill themselves must not be reduced to an opinion poll.

Right to Life is implacably opposed to a referendum because it is based on the false and dangerous premise that the community has a right to decide who shall be allowed to be killed. This presumption is a violation of the inalienable right to life of every member of the community.

A binding referendum that resulted in support for the Seymour bill would also impose an intolerable burden on the conscience of parliamentarians who are opposed to the murder of the vulnerable. It would be a serious dereliction of duty for Parliament to support a binding referendum. Parliament must not shamefully shirk its responsibility to protect the lives of the community by cowardly washing its hands and imposing that responsibility onto the community.

Right to Life earnestly requests that our parliamentarians vote to defeat any resolution seeking to impose a binding referendum that would implicate the whole community in the murder of vulnerable people.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Parliament Shamefully Succumbs to Culture of Death

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Media Release Wednesday 26th June 2019

Right to Life is disappointed that Parliament has embraced a culture of death by passing the End of Life Choice bill [EOLCB] which if passed at its third reading will allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. This is a violation of the sanctity of life ethic and of the prohibition of the taking of the life of an innocent human being, the foundation of the law and of medicine, We change it our our peril.

This is a tragic moment and a day of shame in the history of our Parliament. This is the day Parliament in a conscience vote passed the EOLCB at its second reading by  70 votes to 50.  Parliament has now decreed that there are some lives not worthy of life. It has placed in jeopardy the lives of our most vulnerable, the aged, the disabled and the seriously ill. Right to Life congratulates those Members who bravely defended the God given right to life of every member of our community and voted against this bill.           

Parliament in passing this bill has abandoned its commitment to upholding a culture of life and its sacred duty to legislate for the protection of the lives of every human being from conception to natural death and not to preside over our destruction. It is not the role of Parliament to decide who shall live and who may be killed.

Parliament in passing this bill has ignored the overwhelming rejection of euthanasia and this bill by  91.8 per cent of the 39,159 written submissions received by the Justice Select Committee. The bill was also rejected by 85 per cent of the 3,600 oral submissions heard by the Select Committee. The chairman of the Committee in reporting the bill back to Parliament advised that the Committee was unable to agree that the bill should be passed. The bill was strongly opposed by the New Zealand Medical Association, by disability groups and Aged Concern.

Right to Life now earnestly requests that Parliament defeats this bill at its third reading and ensures that every New Zealander has access to death with dignity through our world class palliative care. We must ensure that palliative care is fully funded and accessible. Parliament should also commit itself to implementing the government’s Suicide Prevention Strategy with the objective of reducing our appalling suicide rate.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life 

Will Parliament Challenge the Authority of the Creator?

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Media Release June 17 2019

Right to Life asks, will the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern give moral leadership and protect the vulnerable in our community? Is she going to stand up for the vulnerable and vote against the life threatening End of Life Choice bill [EOLCB] at its second reading?

A yes vote by our parliamentarians at the second reading for the EOLCB would be an unprecedented challenge to the authority of God.

God is the author of life and we are the stewards of the life that He has lovingly entrusted to us. Parliament has usurped the authority of God by deceiving itself that it has the authority to decide who shall live and who shall die. The EOLCB will empower doctors to kill or assist in the suicide of patients.

All authority comes from God and He has delegated His authority to the State to legislate for the protection of the lives of every member of our community from conception to natural death and not to preside over our destruction.

This threat to the right to life of the elderly, the disabled and the seriously ill is a threat to the lives of all and should be a cause of great concern for every person in our community.

It is important to understand the agenda of the euthanasia movement, a movement that has close association with eugenics which decrees that only the fit shall be allowed to live. The agenda is;

  • That the State has authority to decide who shall live and who shall be killed.
  • That doctors be empowered by the State to kill their patients or assist in their suicide.
  • That doctors be required to disregard the Hippocratic Oath and the duty to do no harm. Doctors could be, as in Nazi Germany, required to pledge allegiance to the State by taking an oath, “to the health of the nation.’
  • That doctors be required to disregard their conscience and become agents of the State in terminating the lives of their patients.
  • To normalise suicide as rational and to require acceptance of its citizens that there is a duty to die when one becomes a burden on the State or on the family.

In a 2008 interview, Baroness Mary Warnock, a leading British moral philosopher, said that people suffering from dementia had a duty to commit suicide: “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives, your family’s lives and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Services.”

In 2016 there were 62,827 patients in New Zealand with Alzheimers, costing $1.7 billion in care. By 2050 it is expected that there will be 170,000 patients needing care, costing an estimated $5 billion. These are among our most vulnerable citizens. All of whom would be potential victims of euthanasia.

We should learn from Nazi Germany and the T4 euthanasia programme that started in 1938 which resulted in the killing of an estimated 300,000 disabled and sick German children and adults. It culminated in the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews. Will we learn from history and not make the same mistake?

It is imperative that Parliament uphold its duty to defend life by defeating the contentious EOLCB at its second reading.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Homicide and Assisted Suicide are not Health Care

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Media Release 18th May 2019

Right to Life requests that Parliament votes a resounding no to the second reading of the End of Life Choice bill on Wednesday 22nd May. We encourage all those who are concerned about this dangerous bill to continue to contact their MP’s before they vote on Wednesday.

This bill is tilted “The End of Life Choice Bill” to blatantly mislead the pubic. Its intetion is to allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. There is a stark contrast in the title, between Seymour’s Bill and the 2001 Dutch euthanasia bill.  This bill was at least honestly and transparently named. It was titled,”The Dutch Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act”. There was no attempt to hide the hideous reality that euthanasia is about doctors inflicting death on their patients or assisting in their suicide.

While the Dutch were at least honest in their description we should learn from their experience of the terrible consequences of passing legislation which authorizes doctors to kill rather than care for their patients. Statistics relating to euthanasia deaths in The Netherlands in 2018 have been released, and are available on the Euthanasia Commission website.

According to the Dutch Euthanasia Commission there were just over 6100 people who were killed in euthanasia in The Netherlands last year, making it responsible for 1 in 25 deaths in the country.

146 People were killed in The Netherlands in 2018 because they were suffering dementia.  Two of these were euthanised even though they were no longer able to communicate their request, with doctors deeming that a previous written request was sufficient to kill them.

67 People were killed because they were suffering from psychiatric disorders.  Alarmingly, in only half of these cases was the reporting physician themselves a psychiatrist.

205 People – or more than one every two days – were euthanised because of an “accumulation of old age disorders.”  These disorders include vision and hearing impairment, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis (described in the report as “wear and tear”, balance problems, and cognitive decline.

The Dutch government supports autonomy and the “right “of those over the age of 70 years of age, who believe that their life is complete, to be provided with doctor assisted suicide. A draft bill has been studied by government since 2016.

Suitable organ donors among those having their lives terminated are encouraged to donate their organs e.g. heart, lungs, kidneys and pancreas. In order to retrieve organs in the best condition doctors are now advocating that the law be changed to allow organs to be retrieved from a patient while tranquilised but still alive. This would be done in a hospital operating theatre to ensure best quality organs. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association done on Belgium euthanasia statistics for 2015 revealed that 10% of patients being terminated could donate at least one organ. It would appear that while the patient’s life was considered of little value his organs were of value.

Parliament has a sacred duty to our Creator, the author of life and the community to legislate to protect the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death. It is always a crime to kill another innocent human being. This dangerous anti-life bill that emanates from a culture of death is a threat to the lives of the most vulnerable in our community, the aged, the disabled and the seriously ill.  Under the guise of compassion, death with dignity and autonomy the End of Life Choice bill seeks to entice our Parliament to legislate to allow doctors to choose who may be allowed to live and who shall die.

These are the potential future consequences if Parliament passed this dangerous EOLCB. This is not the New Zealand that we want for our children and grandchildren.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Failure of Political Leadership. “Choice” The Right to be Killed

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It is disappointing that three of our prominent Parliamentarians should support the contentious and life threatening End of Life Choice bill [EOLCB] of David Seymour.
The Members are, the Prime Minister, Jacinda  Ardern, the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little and the Deputy Leader of the National Party, the Hon Paula Bennett.

The three have publicly stated that they support ‘choice’. The choice they are alluding to is the ‘right’ of a patient to have their doctor kill them with a lethal injection or assist them in committing suicide; self-murder.

These leaders and indeed all Members of Parliament should recognise that their duty is to legislate to protect the lives of every member of the community from conception until natural death and not to preside over our destruction. The Members proclaim the right to ‘choose’ yet are prepared to ignore the 38,707 written submissions with 90.02 per cent opposed to euthanasia and the bill. Why are they ‘choosing’ to impose their will on the community?

The ‘choice’ proposed in this EOLCB is a ravenous wolf in sheeps clothing. The bill undermines the rights of patients and doctors.

The European Court of Human Rights found in 2017 that there is no right to suicide or to assisted suicide under the convention and no positive obligation to provide such. The legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide does not provide individual rights but it gives doctors, or others, the right in law to cause your death.

The bill would threaten the human rights of those who did not choose to be killed. In Holland in 2015 there were 431 patients who were deprived of their life by their doctor without their knowledge or consent. A doctor in Belgium who gives patients a lethal injection, claims that 1,000 patients every year are killed by their doctor without the knowledge or consent of the patient.

The bill undermines the right of doctors to choose to follow their conscience. A doctor who refuses a request from his patient for a lethal injection is required to refer the patient to a doctor who is prepared to kill him.

David Seymour, the ‘high priest of euthanasia’, claims that his bill is all about ‘choice’. This is the same person who seeks to deny his fellow MPs the right to choose to follow their conscience in voting on this bill by seeking to have a binding referendum on the bill to bind their vote to the majority.

Parliament should recognise that David Seymour is seeking to seduce the community to accept homicide and suicide under the smokescreen of choice. Right to Life requests Parliament to defeat this contentious bill at its second reading on 1 May 2019.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Doctors Healers or Killers?

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Media Release Saturday 6th April 2019

The second reading of the End of Life Choice bill in May will present Parliament with a clear choice to either defend the ethics of the medical profession or to change those ethics to allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. Should Parliament unwisely and unjustly pass the EOLCB, it will ultimately classify certain persons as having lives not worthy of life. Those persons may then be killed with the permission of the state. This same state will fund the killing as “a health service” and allow for their lives to be terminated in Public Hospitals.

This bill will empower a doctor to deprive a patient of their life without the knowledge of the patient’s family. The bill obliges the doctor to falsely record the underlying condition as the cause of death on the patients death certificate. While the doctor is then obliged to report the death as a euthanasia or assisted suicide death, we know from overseas experience that euthanasia deaths are considerably being under-reported. The doctor’s action in killing the patient or assisting in the patient’s suicide relies solely on the doctor’s self- reporting.

For 2,000 years the medical profession has upheld the Hippocratic tradition to do no harm. The total prohibition against the taking of the life of an innocent human being is the bedrock of both the law and medicine and is enshrined in the Crimes Act 1966. We remove it at our peril.

The state has a solemn duty to protect the inalienable right to life of every human being from conception to natural death. The first duty of the state is to legislate for the protection of the lives of its citizens and not to preside over their destruction. Assisted suicide and homicide are serious crimes and carry sentences of up to 14 years imprisonment on conviction for Assisted Suicide and up to life for Homicide. If passed, the EOLC bill will require a watershed change to our laws for these crimes.

Right to Life believe that members of Parliament who unwisely choose to support this contentious bill should forfeit their right to sit in our Parliament and are likely to pay a high price at the next election in 2020.

Killing is diametrically opposed to the role of physicians as healers. Should the EOLC bill be passed doctors who are opposed to euthanasia will be required to refer a patient seeking euthanasia to a doctor who is prepared to facilitate the killing. This a violation of the right of physicians to follow their conscience to do no harm and to respect the right to life of their patients.

Right to Life believes that if the EOLC bill is passed it will result in doctors who respect the sanctity of every human life and who refuse to participate in the killing of patients, being driven out of the medical profession.

We also believe that in a short time it will be a requirement for candidates to enter medical school to agree to being willing to kill their patients or assist in their suicide.

Parliament should not be seduced by David Seymour’s suggested amendments to the EOLCB to include a national referendum and support for the Palliative Care bill of the Hon. Maggie Barry. These suggestions are nothing but a thin smokescreen which he hopes may help in getting his bill through Parliament.

Right to Life calls upon our legislators to vote down this unprecedented attack on life and to uphold the common good. Our medical profession must be proteced from this dangerous and contentious bill.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

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