Right to Life UK – Nov 10, 2021
As New Zealand’s euthanasia legislation comes into effect, anti-euthanasia campaigners have launched an initiative to begin the path towards repealing the legislation and protecting the vulnerable.
After becoming the first country in the world to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia by popular vote in a binding referendum, New Zealand’s End of Life Choice Act (EOLCA) came into effect last Sunday. In response, DefendNZ has launched a new campaign to “protect” the vulnerable from the new law, and to “expose and improve” the law as it is written.
Their spokesperson, Henoch Kloosterboer, said: “Some may have wrongly assumed that this debate was over now that the EOLCA has come into force, when what this actually means is that our advocacy for the vulnerable put at risk by this law is more critical than ever before”.
He described the introduction of assisted suicide and euthanasia into New Zealand as “one of the most seismic shifts in law, healthcare and medical ethics in its entire history. As of this moment, some New Zealanders now wield the state-sanctioned legal power to deliberately end the lives of others, or to assist in their suicides”.
“To think that there will be no harms that will come from this is to be unaware of the many problems unfolding overseas in the limited number of places that have also legalised these practices – and this includes the harm of wrongful killings”.