Law change plea from husband
The husband of Lecretia Seales has appealed to MPs to reform the law on voluntary euthanasia — saying fear and religious opposition should not deny others a choice.
Matt Vickers had travelled from his new home in New York and presented to Parliament’s health committee yesterday.
“I want to be crystal clear that Lecretia valued her life very much,” Vickers said. “She did not want to die . . . but she felt it was right for her to be able to choose the circumstances of her death.
“Assisted dying legislation is not a threat, but an opportunity.”
A large number of submissions against changing the law were based on religious reasons, Vickers said, and that was not good enough.
“We live in a country with a plurality of religious beliefs and I think assisted dying legislation is the only way to respect that plurality.”
While a majority of submissions on voluntary euthanasia were from those opposed, Vickers said that was not a representation of wider society. Rather, it showed the depth of feeling on the issue.
Vickers urged members of the committee to examine the evidence on assisted dying in some US states and in European countries. Oregon’s experience proved there was no “slippery slope”, he said.
“In most cases it is impossible to justify the status quo,” he said. “Why do we prohibit assisted dying when we know . . . that between 5-8 per cent of all recorded suicides are ill New Zealanders who might have lived longer had assisted dying laws been in place.”
The issue of voluntary euthanasia was thrust back into the spotlight by Seales. The Wellington lawyer, dying of brain cancer, asked the High Court to give her the legal right for a doctor to help end her life. On June 5 last year, soon after being told that her court bid was unsuccessful, Seales, 42, died of her illness. A judge ruled that only Parliament could make a law change allowing that legal right.