Some New Zealanders with Covid could be eligible for assisted dying
by Arthur Goldberg, MercatorNet:
When the Covid-19 pandemic began last year, I speculated in MercatorNet that “Perhaps a healthy by-product of the pandemic will be to renew our emphasis on caring for others. The widespread death toll of the virus forces us to recognize the preciousness of all lives and the tragedy of all deaths. By choosing to invest in fighting this horrifying disease, a potential beneficial by-product may be to reestablish the kind of moral values that created our society and remain the basis of a just society.”
A new interpretation by the Ministry of Health in New Zealand of its recently enacted assisted suicide law is proving me wrong. The New Zealand government declared “in some circumstances a person with Covid-19 may be eligible for assisted dying.”
The rationale for this decision was the Ministry’s definition concerning the statutory criteria that to be eligible for assisted dying, “a person must have a terminal illness that is likely to end their life within six months.” Such determination is made by the “attending medical practitioner and the independent medical practitioner.” Thus, the determinative factor as to the prognosis of the patient is the subjective judgments of two medical professionals. DefendNZ, a pro-life group which released the opinion of the Ministry of Health quotes National MP Simon O’Connor who observed that the New Zealand End of Life Choice Act places “far too much [discretion] into the judgment of the doctor.”
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