‘Time for NZ to be bold’ over euthanasia
Rachel Rypma wants to die with dignity on her own terms, but is legally not allowed.
She has Huntington’s disease, an incurable progressive brain disorder that causes uncontrolled movements, changes in personality and loss of thinking ability.
In a submission to the Health Select Committee in Christchurch yesterday, her former partner and close friend, Gabe Rypma, said it meant she will most likely die choking on the food she eats, instead of passing with dignity holding the hands of loved ones.
‘‘Rachel’s always been of the view that when it got too hard, she wanted the right to die. She wanted the right to choose.’’
She was 24 years old and pregnant when she tested positive for the genetic disease. Rather than risk passing the gene on to their unborn child, they decided to have an abortion.
Now 41, Rachel Rypma made her submission while wheelchair bound and jerking uncontrollably from the Huntington’s disease, supported by her mother, Denise Forbes. Her speech was affected by her condition, so Gabe Rypma did most of the talking.
He said he knew euthanasia was fraught with ethical issues, but it was wrong when they could make that choice for their unborn child but not for themselves.
‘‘I think it’s time for New Zealand to be bold and to hold up a mirror and to say ‘If I was Rachel, if I lived this life, do I deserve a choice, and would I like a choice too?’’’
Rachel and Gabe Rypma were part of about 1800 in-person submissions being made to the parliamentary committee around the country.
The majority of yesterday’s submissions were against legalising physician-assisted suicide.
A common argument was that those who are vulnerable or feel they are a burden to society may apply for euthanasia despite being able to live on with a good quality of life.
The eligibility criteria for euthanasia was a concern, with submitters arguing the commonly used criteria of ‘‘an irreversible illness or condition which makes life unbearable’’ was ambiguous and dangerous.
The emotional issue has been thrust back into the headlines following a police operation targeting elderly Wellington women attending a euthanasia meeting, which was set up to investigate the possibility that several recent deaths involved assisted suicide. It was sparked by the June 6 death of Annemarie Treadwell, a Wellington woman who signed Maryan Street’spetition in support of assisted dying.
‘‘This was a person who was a member of Exit for a number of years, and an elderly person who was trying to make sure she had some choices,’’ Dr Philip Nitschke, the founder of Exit International, said yesterday.
Another source also said Treadwell’s death, and subsequent coronial investigation, spawned the widely-criticised police checkpoints targeting members of Exit International.
Yesterday, a Wellington teacher appeared in court charged with importing a drug used for euthanasia. Susan Dale Austen, 65, faced one charge of importing the narcotic sedative pentobarbitone, known as Nembutal, between March 2012 and October 2016, and one of importing on September 30.
She appeared before a Wellington District Court registrar and was remanded until February without entering a plea.
But police may also face legal action, as senior lawyers back the questionable checkpoint operation, which police have referred to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
On Thursday, Wellington Acting District Commander Paul Basham fronted a press conference overseen by a Police National Headquarters spokesman where he emphasised that police would not ‘‘litigate’’ the case through the media, and said the decision to launch the checkpoints was a ‘‘collective’’ one made at the Wellington District Police level.
The IPCA confirmed it would investigate the police breath-test checkpoint used to get the pro-euthanasia group supporters’ details.