(Click graphic to open link to the pdf)
Your Voice Counts: Submissions Now Open for ‘End of Life Choice Bill’
The Justice Select Committee is now asking for public submissions on David Seymour’s ‘End of Life Choice Bill’. The bill seeks to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide (called ‘assisted dying’ in the bill) for people with a terminal illness or a “grievous and irremediable” medical condition.
Many of you will have made a submission to the Health Select Committee inquiry about ‘Ending Life in New Zealand’. Because of the overwhelming number of submissions against euthanasia, parliament took notice and your voice made a difference. However, the Justice Select Committee inquiry is different because it is specifically about the bill. A submission is your chance to have your say on the bill.
Your voice counted then. We ask if you can do it again. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
Important: Please state in your submission whether you would like to make an oral submission. This is when you appear before the Committee either in person or over the phone. We encourage you to make one because it is an extra opportunity to add more information and it is important that the Committee hears from people.
1. HOW:
If you do not want your name & contact details to be made public, provide them on a separate page for written submissions, or separate from the file you upload if emailing or using online form.
Web
• Go to notoassistedsuicide.nz for a quick link to submit.
• Follow the instructions.
• You can enter text directly or upload a document in pdf or doc format.
Email
• Send an email to ju@parliament.govt.nz.
• Put “End of Life Choice Bill Submission” in the subject line.
• Include your name, address, telephone number.
• Attach your submission in pdf or doc format.
Letter
In a covering letter, starting at the top of the page, write:
• ‘Submission on End of Life Choice Bill.’
• ‘To the Justice Select Committee.’
• ‘This submission is from [your name] and/or [your organisation].’
• Contact details: email address, contact address, telephone number.
On a separate piece of paper, write your submission.
Enclose 2 copies of your submission and send it to:
Committee Secretariat
Justice Committee
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
2. WHAT:
In your submission:
1. State your position clearly (e.g. “I oppose the End of Life Choice Bill…”).
2. State why you are opposed and what main point (or points) you are concerned about.
3. Finish by making your recommendation (e.g. “I recommend that the Committee rejects the Bill…”).
Key issues relating to David Seymour’s Bill: [Please write using your own words.]
• You don’t have to be dying to qualify: this Bill includes people with chronic conditions and mental health conditions.
• There is no need for doctors to be involved: euthanasia and assisted suicide contravene medical ethics and are not medical treatment. The legal process outlined in this Bill does not require medical knowledge or skills.
• This Bill will not protect large numbers of vulnerable people from the suggestion that they are better off dead because they are a burden.
• The Bill does not provide adequate protection for vulnerable people against coercion.
• “Legal safeguards” do not protect in the real world: elder abuse and domestic violence continue to rise in New Zealand despite our laws.
3. WHEN – Submissions are now open!
Submissions must be received before 20 February 2018.
All submissions are made public on the Parliament website.