To be an approved provider requires specific training and registration. There are currently only 121 practitioners on the SCENZ Group (Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand) lists -- roughly one in every thousand qualified doctors and nurses. The full list is not public. Your own GP or nurse may or may not be approved. If you want the service, you can call the national line (0800 223 852 toll free) and be connected to someone who is.
The procedure itself is free. The government pays practitioners up to $3,000 or more per death (including assessments, administration, and travel), depending on the components involved. It is cheaper than palliative or residential care.
Courts in various jurisdictions have ruled lethal injection “cruel and unusual punishment” when used for executions. Some experts consider firing squads more reliable and humane. Yet the public would rightly recoil at the image of a nana being taken from a retirement village and shot. A clinical injection feels cleaner, more clinical.
But is it?
New Zealand’s exact protocol remains secret, but no doubt it closely follows the well-documented Canadian clinician-administered MAiD sequence:
1. Midazolam (benzodiazepine sedative): Induces relaxation, drowsiness, and amnesia to reduce anxiety and awareness.
2. Lidocaine (local anaesthetic): Numbs the injection site for comfort.
3. Propofol (potent anaesthetic): Rapidly produces deep unconsciousness and suppresses breathing.
4. Neuromuscular blocker (e.g., rocuronium): Paralyzes all skeletal muscles, including those used for breathing. No ventilation is provided.
Death follows from respiratory arrest and oxygen deprivation -- technically, suffocation -- usually within minutes. The earlier drugs ensure the patient is unconscious and does not experience or exhibit distress. The final paralysis creates the appearance of a peaceful, serene death.
It is the pharmaceutical equivalent of pushing a pillow over Nana's face and holding her down while she breathes her last. The purpose of the drugs is to prevent her fighting back and jumping about the bed. The process serves to give her every appearance of putting her into a gentle sleep but we need to be clear: she is rendered unconscious, paralysed and then suffocated.
But it is all good. Our Parliament has legislated it. Our Government funds and administers it. Health professionals do the killing. And -- most importantly -- Nana okayed it. It’s not like she can complain.
Rodney Hide is a former Minister and leader of the ACT Party. This article was sourced from HERE.
Don Brash and Lindsay Mitchell respond:
Courts in various jurisdictions have ruled lethal injection “cruel and unusual punishment” when used for executions. Some experts consider firing squads more reliable and humane. Yet the public would rightly recoil at the image of a nana being taken from a retirement village and shot. A clinical injection feels cleaner, more clinical.
But is it?
New Zealand’s exact protocol remains secret, but no doubt it closely follows the well-documented Canadian clinician-administered MAiD sequence:
1. Midazolam (benzodiazepine sedative): Induces relaxation, drowsiness, and amnesia to reduce anxiety and awareness.
2. Lidocaine (local anaesthetic): Numbs the injection site for comfort.
3. Propofol (potent anaesthetic): Rapidly produces deep unconsciousness and suppresses breathing.
4. Neuromuscular blocker (e.g., rocuronium): Paralyzes all skeletal muscles, including those used for breathing. No ventilation is provided.
Death follows from respiratory arrest and oxygen deprivation -- technically, suffocation -- usually within minutes. The earlier drugs ensure the patient is unconscious and does not experience or exhibit distress. The final paralysis creates the appearance of a peaceful, serene death.
It is the pharmaceutical equivalent of pushing a pillow over Nana's face and holding her down while she breathes her last. The purpose of the drugs is to prevent her fighting back and jumping about the bed. The process serves to give her every appearance of putting her into a gentle sleep but we need to be clear: she is rendered unconscious, paralysed and then suffocated.
But it is all good. Our Parliament has legislated it. Our Government funds and administers it. Health professionals do the killing. And -- most importantly -- Nana okayed it. It’s not like she can complain.
Rodney Hide is a former Minister and leader of the ACT Party. This article was sourced from HERE.
Don Brash and Lindsay Mitchell respond:
Assisted dying is enabled by one of the few laws resulting from a public referendum. It had majority support. The parliament legislated at the wishes of the people.
Rodney describes the process in barbaric terms. We believe it is barbaric to make people suffer over a protracted period facing a certain death. 306 applicants for euthanasia died while waiting for consent.
Rodney describes the process in barbaric terms. We believe it is barbaric to make people suffer over a protracted period facing a certain death. 306 applicants for euthanasia died while waiting for consent.
8 comments:
Having known a gentleman who. Chose assisted dying last year he was living in extreme agony and fear of his incurable disease (a form of cancer). It was clearly terminal but his fear was “what new pain” would he develop over the course of each day.
His care was financially ruinous for his family, which he was very aware of as he was the numbers guy in the house.
At his own request he chose to get help to end his life. He had to wait several weeks from request to action. He had to go through counseling and numerous checks in that time. If at any point he had expressed any doubts the whole process would have been canceled as that is the protocol.
Seeing firsthand what he and his immediate family went through throughout that period of their lives made me grateful that this avenue was available to him. He died with his family by his side. His family members were not involved in or consulted in his decision and if there were any indications of coercion from them the whole thing would have been stopped. For their part they were grateful he was no longer in pain and afraid.
I don’t understand. Does Rodney want big government or not? He says formerly of ACT but his words don’t reflect that, so what’s the point of putting his political CV in his opinion pieces?
Absolutely agree with Don and Lindsay.
My body, my life, my choice. End of argument.
Don Brash and Lindsay Mitchell have lost my respect. Dying a natural death is not barbaric. Suffering is a part of life and death for everyone. Suffocating people using lethal injection is murder, even if the other person consents to it and the law permits it. There is intent to kill. In Canada their a doctors who euthanise thousands of people each year earning 800k as what the FBI would define as serial killing. Former promotor of assisted suicide Kelsi Sheren says in a recent interview on the triggernometry podcast on youtube that assisted suicide is "monetizing death." There's a reason why two MAID kits are provided, the first one often doesn't work and people end up in the emergency room rather than dying. With advance requests families have been asked by doctors to hold down loved ones who have changed their minds so that the shots can be administered. This is all documented in the public record. How much goes undocumented?
Rodney hide has obviously never witnessed loved ones die in excruciating pain from terminal illness.
I would be against allowing "nature" torturing those with terminal illness if they want to opt for a "peaceful" alternative.
It is a surreal experience awakening after general anesthesia - It induces a controlled, reversible state of total unconsciousness. There is no pain or memory.
The realization comes you might have never been woken and until it happened, there was only "nothing".
"Nothing" is as close to "Peaceful" that we can achieve.
>"Dying a natural death is not barbaric."
A 'natural' death may be a consequence of a debilitating and agonisingly painful disease that has been held more or less in check with lots of drugs until the moment of death. My generation ('boomers') have been adamantly pursuing personal liberty and choice with regard to one's own body. Assisted dying is the last frontier of this campaign.
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