April 10, 2019
End choice no choice for vulnerable Māori
A Māori disability rights activist and former legal academic says the End of Life Choice Bill is a threat to Māori, the elderly the disabled and other vulnerable groups.
The bill sponsored by ACT leader David Seymour has been reported back by a select committee and will now be considered by the full parliament.
Huhana Hickey from Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders says while supporters of the bill argue it can be argued to a small group of people such as the terminally ill, once the right to die is accepted as a human right anyone can claim it.
She says many of the situations that lead people to despair of their circumstances are caused by lack of resourcing in the health system, such as the post code discrimination that means people in areas like Counties Manukau with high Māori and Pasifika populations have to wait longer for treatment than in neighbouring district health board areas.
"We also have one of the highest youth suicide rates of any group in the OECD so if we are not addressing our high rates of suicide, our poverty, the struggle to get access to medicine, how can we be talking about ending the lives of people who would make that choice not of free will or anything else, but simply because it is costing so much to stay alive," Dr Hickey says.
She says many elderly Māori say they don't want to be a burden on their relatives, and they could be coerced into legal suicide.
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