Consistent Poll Results

In April Horizon Research conducted a poll of 1300 representative New Zealanders on End of Life Choice. Consistent with most polls carried out in the past 25 years, the number of those resisting any change remains at less than 20%.
Those in favour of EOLC for terminal patients now number around 74% (up from 64% when Horizon ran their first poll in 2012)..
Of interest is that 65% also believe assisted dying should be available for people with "irreversible unbearable suffering which may not cause death in the immediate future". This is the category that the Green Party want to remove from the Draft Bill. Hopefully some accommodation can be reached on this issue when the finer points of the very complex Bill are debated. But first it has to get through the second Reading, to be held as early at 22 May but possibly not until June.  Private Members' Bills take low priority in the House.
I have been working on a short video to send personally to all MPs who appear to still be in the "undecided" category. Happily, this list is getting shorter week by week...

Clouding the Issue

As the Second Reading on May 22 creeps up it is clear that the those who are opposed to the End of Life Choice Bill are ramping up their claims. In this powerful article by Graham Adams, 1 May in NOTED. there are dramatic examples of the lengths to which the opposition is prepared to go. Do go to it and read the articles there. In the first Bill English's wife Dr Mary is charged with being involved in an entirely inappropriate meme on social media deliberately relating assisted death to youth suicide. The implication is, how wrong can you be, how low can you get.

It is depressing to be confronted with such specious arguments that the real issue is lost to sight. Only widespread action by ordinary voters can help the 50% of MPs who are in the "undecided" category to focus on what really matters.

Personally, now, all that is central to the issue for me is me. My cancer, no longer receiving treatment but left to take its not very congenial course. My possible last days are all the Bill sets out to deal with. It is if it is written for my particular and personal circumstances. Get your heads around that, you undecided MPs!