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VIEWPOINT: Why the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners needs to have a Position Statement on Euthanasia.

By NZHPA
December 4, 2017
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VIEWPOINT: General Practitioners as Professionals:  Why the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners needs to have a Position Statement on Euthanasia. Dr Kevin Fitzsimons FRNZCGP General Practitioners are a large and integral part of the Medical Profession.  It is likely that on ethical and other contentious issues, General Practitioners will hold a range of opinions as diverse as any other body of educated men and women throughout society.  In a …Read More

Legalising assisted dying would be a failure of collective human memory and imagination

By NZHPA
December 4, 2017
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Originally published in The Guardian, 20 September 2017 By Margaret Somerville Dying and death is not a new phenomenon: we have always become ill, suffered, were going to die and someone else could have killed us. So why now, at the beginning of the 21st century, after prohibiting euthanasia for thousands of years and when we can do so much more to relieve suffering than in the past, do we …Read More

Palliative care experts warn NSW assisted dying bill ‘unsafe’

By NZHPA
November 27, 2017
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Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 2017 By Sean Nicholls Palliative care professionals have presented a united front against proposed voluntary assisted dying legislation on the eve of debate in the NSW Parliament, declaring the bill “cannot be made safe”. The NSW upper house is set to debate laws that would make it legal for terminally ill NSW residents aged 25 or over and expected to die …Read More

Assisted dying legislation creates different categories of human life

By NZHPA
November 24, 2017
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Originally published in The Age, 16 October 2017 by Emma Dawson I’ve hesitated before entering the debate around the assisted dying legislation now before the Victorian Parliament, because people of good intentions are driving the legislative process. But the willingness of some euthanasia advocates to paint all opposition as religious zealotry must not go unchallenged. I’m not religious. And, for the record, I support both marriage equality and abortion rights …Read More

I won’t intentionally help my patients to end their lives

By NZHPA
November 20, 2017
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Originally published in The Age, 9 October 2017 by Marion Harris Most patients with incurable cancer battle to the end. They exhaust all evidence-based active treatment options and clinical trials before being told that supportive care measures are now best. A request to die is uncommon, and is often driven by poorly controlled pain or nausea, as well as fear, loss of function and hopelessness. Usually when pain and other …Read More

Euthanasia by Stealth: The Slippery Slope

By NZHPA
June 15, 2013
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Once euthanasia or assisted-suicide is legalised for a select group, before long the argument is put that it’s discriminatory not to allow it for others, including those incapable of giving consent. Legalising euthanasia in any form will inevitably lead to euthanasia in all forms. Is this what we really want for New Zealand? Read here to see the risks: http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/3864411-another-step-towards-euthanasia-children

Debates on euthanasia: The soul of medicine is on trial

By NZHPA
April 25, 2013
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Sinéad Donnelly Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB), Wellington Adjunct Professor, School Biological Sciences, Victoria University, Wellington Senior Clinical Lecturer, Otago School of Medicine, Wellington This article was originally published in the Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, 23-November-2012, Vol 125 No 1366 I come from a long line of doctors; since 1905, three generations and seven doctors. From my general practitioner grandfather I have …Read More

Does euthanasia already happen in NZ?

By NZHPA
April 24, 2012
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Do hospitals and hospices already effectively practice euthanasia through administering pain relief or withholding medications? Radio New Zealand interviews Sinead Donnelly of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine and Anne Morgan of Hospice NZ.

Medical Council drops abortion case

By NZHPA
November 30, 2011
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The cost of legal action has led the Medical Council to abandon its proposed statement on the advice doctors should give when they have a conscientious objection to abortion. Having spent more than $214,000 defending its draft statement in court, the council decided it must balance financial prudence with the desire to provide guidelines, chair John Adams says. The council will not continue its appeal against last year’s High Court ruling from …Read More

GP pleased Medical Council drops abortion statement appeal

By NZHPA
November 30, 2011
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Media statement: Dr Catherine Hallagan, a General Practitioner from Wellington and spokesperson for the New Zealand Health Professionals Alliance, told NZ Doctor that the NZHPA is very pleased that the Medical Council has abandoned its appeal. Dr Hallagan said that she had felt strongly about challenging the Medical Council’s draft statement on “Beliefs and medical practice”since first reading it in 2009. “I was shocked at what I read and I believed that …Read More