August 02, 2021
Maori input included on assisted dying panel
Members have been appointed to the statutory body that will oversee the assisted dying service when it starts work in November.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the 11-member Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand group includes collective experience in the awareness of Te Ao Māori and an understanding of Tikanga Māori; expertise in ethics and law, and the disability sector; and includes representation of the views of patients, whānau and the community.
Māori members include Nurses Organisation policy analyst Leanne Manson, whose Masters’ thesis was on the topic of Māori nurses’ perspectives of assisted dying, and academic Dr Te Hurinui Karaka-Clarke, a senior lecturer and deputy head of the University of Canterbury School of Education.
The new service will maintain the list of health practitioners and psychiatrists involved in providing assisted dying services; and provide contact details for replacement, or independent medical practitioners as part of the service, and the contact details for when psychiatrists may be required.
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