Assisted dying
Not all disabled people are afraid of physician-assisted dying (PAD) and I would not like people to think Raymond Mok (‘‘A matter of life and death’’, Focus, January 7) speaks for us all.
I am disabled and I want the right to PAD should I reach a point where I am suffering from a terminal illness that is expected to end my life within six months, or have a grievous and untreatable medical condition.
My impairment has nothing to do with PAD. Any bill passed in Parliament would have safeguards to ensure that I myself could not decide, nor could anyone coerce me, to end my life because I was tired of being disabled.
Attacking David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill, Mok asks: ‘‘What does it mean to say that those with serious medical conditions can legally opt out of life with the help of the able-bodied? Does it imply that their lives are less precious, less valuable?’’
He then argues that this ‘‘smacks of discrimination’’. In fact, the opposite is true. Were the bill to come into law and disabled people
were in some way prevented from utilising it, that would be discrimination.
Raymond Mok does not speak for all disabled people. Nor do I.
But my voice and those of many other disabled people who are not afraid of assisted dying and have trust in a fair, compassionate, goodwilling society, need to be represented in this important, democratic conversation.
Philip Patston, managing director, Diversity New Zealand Ltd
Were the End of Life Choice Bill legal now, Mok would not qualify for help to die on two grounds.
The first is that by his own admission he is not experiencing ‘‘unbearable suffering’’. To his credit he has a very positive attitude to life.
The second is that he doesn’t want to make a ‘request for help to die’. This raises issues for the disabled. If their illness includes mental incompetence they would be ineligible for help. If they are mentally competent, why should they be discriminated against simply because they are disabled?
The disabled can get ‘terminal illness’ or ‘untreatable unbearable suffering’ the same as everybody else.
Jack Havill, Hamilton