Fierce euthanasia battle to begin

The public campaign to get euthanasia legislation over the line has begun with a plea: ‘‘get it to select committee’’.

If MPs voted it through the first reading, it would be the first such legislation to reach a point where the New Zealand public had a chance to submit on it.

However, hard battle lines were already being drawn and ACT leader David Seymour had a fight ahead of him to persuade enough MPs to vote for his euthanasia bill.

He was confident he had the numbers, he said, at an emotionally charged campaign public launch on the steps of Parliament yesterday.

Campaigner Matt Vickers, whose late wife Lecretia Seales fought for the right to die on her own terms, said it was important the bill was voted to select committee stage so the public could have their say.

‘‘They’ve been denied this chance two times before - it’s now the right time to do this.’’

Seymour said there was opportunity for people to influence the vote in Parliament.

‘‘If you know an MP, if you have a local MP, if there’s a political party you support, then it’s time for them to listen to you on this issue and have them vote as you would vote if you were in Parliament.’’

A lone protester attempted to derail the campaign launch. Semiretired paediatrician Russell Franklin said there were no boundaries and no doctor supported it.

Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand president Dr Jack Havill said the law was about compassion ‘‘pure and simple’’.

The bill will be a conscience vote, meaning MPs could vote individually rather than according to party lines.

Strong views were already emerging on both sides.

"[The public] have been denied this chance two times before - it's now the right time to do this."

Euthanasia campaigner Matt Vickers

Health Minister David Clark said he had concerns, but would consider it seriously.

Clark had personal experience of some of the issues at the heart of the bill.

‘‘My own grandmother attempted suicide a number of times when I was a child because she felt she was a burden on society, and if anything society has become more atomised since that point in time.’’

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she supported the bill.

National MP Nikki Kaye also supported the bill.

‘‘I’ve always supported it but obviously going through breast cancer, it’s something I feel very strongly about,’’ she said.

Some were just as staunchly opposed, including Opposition leader Bill English and National MPs Gerry Brownlee, Michael Woodhouse and Maggie Barry.

English, a practising Catholic, said he opposed all forms of euthanasia but this piece of legislation was ‘‘particularly bad’’.

‘‘It will make vulnerable people, such as the elderly, people suffering from mental illness, people with disabilities, more vulnerable. And so I tend to oppose it, strongly.’’

Barry took it further.

‘‘It should be called the Removal of End of Life Choice Bill, it’s a licence to kill.

‘‘It has no protections for the elderly, the disabled and the vulnerable, it would make us the most liberal country in the world to die.’’