Palliative Care Council Statement on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

A key driver for the work of the Palliative Care Council is realising the vision of the New Zealand Palliative Care Strategy, which is to ensure that all people with a life-limiting illness have access to high quality palliative and end-of-life care, regardless of ethnicity, age, geographic location or diagnosis.

Alongside its primary role of providing independent expert advice to the Minister of Health, the Council also strives to raise awareness of the importance of palliative care and the benefits it can provide to people with life-limiting illnesses and their family and whanau. As such, the Council believes that euthanasia and physician assisted suicide do not currently have a place in New Zealand society, and that instead the focus should be on ensuring high quality palliative care is available to all who would benefit from it.

The Council has decided not to produce another in-depth statement on this topic, as they feel existing statements adequately cover the issues. The Council therefore supports and endorses the following documents:

• Hospice New Zealand – Statement on hospice care and assisted dying.
• Australian & New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM) – position statement on the Practice of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.
• New Zealand Medical Association – Euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide