Family Court not needed in euthanasia laws - Seymour

A proposal to have the Family Court decide euthanasia applications may hinder a patient from taking part in their own decision, says ACT leader David Seymour.

He was speaking in response to a proposal from former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer.

Palmer outlined his proposed law-change, at an event at Parliament inspired by Lecretia Seales the Wellington lawyer who died fighting for her right to die before her cancer ultimately claimed her.

Seales’ husband Matt Vickers launched a book written in her memory, called Lecretia’s Choice.

He proposed seven key criteria that had to be satisfied first - all included in Seymour’s own bill to legalise assisted suicide, which is waiting to be drawn from Parliament’s members’ ballot.

They included that the person was at least 18 years old and capable of making decisions, and two medical practitioners would also have to certify that the person had a ‘‘grievous and incurable medical condition’’, that caused enduring and ‘‘intolerable’’ suffering.

A medical practitioner had to be available to carry out the assistance.

But where the two bills diverged was where Palmer said the facts should be reviewed by the Family Court and a judge had certified that the criteria had been met.

Seymour said he would not rule out Family Court involvement, but he did not see the point.

If a person’s condition prevented them from attending a decision made on their own fate, that would be ‘‘very bad news’’.

‘‘That would be the complete opposite of what the intention of my bill, and most people who want to legalise assisted dying is, which is that the most important person who gets to be put in control is the person in question.’’

He did not believe the courts’ involvement would remove the burden of responsibility from medical professionals either.

‘‘Only a doctor can be taken seriously, before a court, to actually decide if a person has that condition - nobody else’s evidence would ever be taken seriously.’’

Palmer, who had once worked with Seales, said the law needed to be changed to ‘‘allow her wish to be granted’’.