The right to die with dignity

‘‘voluntary euthanasia’’. That is an excellent thing, because mercy killing happens routinely in our hospitals but is prohibited by the law.

This is a hopeless contradiction and it will get worse until politicians confront it honestly. Medical science will continue to keep prolonging our lives; for more and more people, this will mean prolonging their suffering.

The crucial case here is that of Lecretia Seales, the vibrant Wellington lawyer who wanted to avoid a dreadful death from a brain tumour. Justice David Collins ruled in 2015 the law did not allow her doctor to put an end to her suffering. It was not for judges to decide the underlying question, he said, but for parliament.

Seales’ extraordinarily moving evidence to the court demands a response from those who want to blur the dilemma with generalities about the sanctity of life.

‘‘I want to be able to die,’’ she said, ‘‘with a sense of who I am and with a dignity and independence that represents the way I have always lived my life ... I really want to be able to say goodbye well.’’

If a family member or loved friend asked us to help put an end to their agony, most of us would feel a duty to do so. Opinion polls consistently show a majority in favour of some form of voluntary euthanasia.

Hospice doctors argue palliative care means we no longer have to make this terrible choice; medicine will make every death a tolerable one. But this is not so. Palliative care experts testified in the Seales case that sometimes pain cannot be alleviated by drugs.

Seymour’s bill would allow a terminally ill person over 18 to request help to die from two doctors, specialists in mental health, consulted independently.

No doctor who objects to euthanasia will have to consider such a request.

This system has safeguards to ensure the request is not made in haste, amid temporary depression, by the mentally ill, or by someone who wants to spare their family the ‘‘burden’’ of their suffering.

Similar systems now operate in a number of states or countries, and claims they are heading down a slippery slope to state-sanctioned killing are not based on good evidence.

Rather, they are a civilised response to a crying need.