Anomaly in law

Attempted suicide ceased to be illegal in New Zealand in 1961. Thus, if I were suffering from an incurable and fatal disease such as motor neuron disease, Huntington’s, or multiple sclerosis, all of which result in prolonged and intolerable suffering, it would be my legal right to end my life. Yet it would be illegal for a member of my family to assist me in exercising that legal right.

What this means is that the right to end one’s life is forfeited when one becomes too incapacitated to carry it out. This is nothing less than statutory discrimination against the disabled. There is thus a powerful incentive for people suffering from incurable diseases to end their lives earlier than they would like, before this fundamental right to end one’s life is taken away.

Far from protecting people, the law is thus guilty of shortening some people’s lives against their will. It is high time this anomaly in the law was fixed, in order to give disabled people the same rights as other citizens. MARTIN HANSON Nelson