Euthanasia referendum on the cards

New Zealanders will likely be asked to decide whether euthanasia should be legal in a referendum at next year’s election after a tight vote in Parliament.

David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was amended last night to include a binding referendum on whether it should come into force, by a tight vote of 63 to 57.

The referendum is not certain as the bill still has to make it through a third reading vote next month.

But the referendum gives it a much higher chance of passing as it keeps NZ First on board with the legislation.

The bill would allow the terminally ill to request assisted dying from their doctors under specific circumstances.

Seymour struck a deal with NZ First early in the bill’s passage to get the party’s support for the bill in exchange for the referendum.

He and many other supporters of the bill are not generally supportive of the bill being a referendum, but understood the need for it to go to one in order to pass the next vote.

‘‘This referendum clause is critical to keeping a coalition of MPs to be able to give people choice at the end of their life,’’ Seymour said at the opening of the debate.

Labour MP and supporter of the bill Kieran McAnulty said supporting the referendum gave the bill a shot at becoming law

‘‘I think of other issues that have faced this country over time: the right to give women the vote, for example. If that was put to a referendum, that probably wouldn’t have passed. The Homosexual Law Reform Act: if that was put to a referendum, that

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probably wouldn’t have passed,’’ McAnulty said.

‘‘In a perfect world, I would have voted ‘‘no’’ on a referendum. But what I need to weigh up is in sticking to that principle which I believe in, can I then, in good conscience, see this bill fail? I cannot. So I will be voting for this referendum, because I am a bookmaker and I know how to count, and I know that if the referendum Supplementary Order Paper fails, so too does the bill, and in good conscience I can’t let that happen.’’

National and Labour MPs are allowed to vote freely on the bill as a conscience issue, while Green and NZ First MPs voted as a bloc to support it.

Since the referendum question will simply ask if ‘‘the End of Life Choice Bill’’ should become law, many opponents of the bill argued that its name should be changed to make what the bill legalised clearer.

National MP Tim Macindoe drafted a failed amendment that would rename the bill the ‘‘Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Act 2019’’.

National’s Chris Penk, a strong opponent of the bill, said the title needed to be free from euphemism. ‘‘So if there is ever a situation in which it would make sense to have a bill with a title that does what it says on the tin – notwithstanding the provisions within the act or the bill – then this would be

Kieran McAnulty Labour MP

‘‘I will be voting for this referendum, because I am a bookmaker and I know how to count.’’

that situation.’’

NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft, whose amendment added the referendum, said it was key that such a change to the ‘‘fabric of society’’ should go to the public.

The End of Life Choice Bill was first put into the ballot by Seymour in 2015 and has had a tortuous journey through Parliament, including a 16-month select committee process.