Euthanasia Is Going To Be Legal In New Zealand for Terminally Ill Patients
Lecretia Seales Started the Campaign After She Was Diagnosed With a Brain Tumor
A new law has been passed by the government of New Zealand, which legalizes euthanasia across the country, and the campaign has been called as a sign of victory for kindness and compassion for humans. The preliminary poll result concludes that 65.2% of all voters were in support of the End of Life Choice Act, forcing it to become a new law in New Zealand.
This recently legalized euthanasia will allow terminally ill patients that have less than six months to live due to their critical severity of the disease will be presented with the opportunity to choose the ability for assisted dying if the process has the approval of at least two doctors who have been treating the patient. The opposition of this newly appointed law states that it lacks the required safeguard.
Legalization of euthanasia
The conclusive results of the referendum were announced on Friday do not include the special voters, which accounts for the 480,000 votes that include overseas posted ballots due to which the officially finalized outcome would not be able to confirm until November 6. Although it is expected that due to already strong support for the law to legalize euthanasia, the decision would hardly alter from its place.
The public vote is binding, and the new law is expected to be put into effect from November 2021. Due to the legalization of euthanasia, New Zealand will join a small group of countries that have allowed patients to undergo euthanasia by their personal consent, along with the medical prescription. Nations like Canada and the Netherlands have legalized euthanasia to be performed according to the will of the patient and the severity of the disease.
The public vote for assisted dying for terminally ill patients was held along the general elections in New Zealand, which were held earlier in the month of October. In a completely separate referendum that was held alongside, the proposal for the legalization of recreational cannabis was narrowly dismissed by the general population of New Zealand, as most were in favor of euthanasia.
The preliminary conclusion for the legalization of marijuana was 46.1% positive and 53.1% negative, but the results might chance once the special votes are also included in the finalized results in the next week.
The reaction of New Zealanders to Euthanasia
It was previously anticipated that the verdict for the legalization of euthanasia would be positive after public polls suggested massive public support towards assisted dying in the country. The decision for euthanasia was also backed by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the opposition party leader Judith Collins.
The legitimization of assisted dying was the result of past year-long, emotional campaigns that have strong views on equal sides of the argument. Matt Vickers took over her late wife’s fight for the legalization of euthanasia, for which the current results show victory for kindness and compassion for terminally ill patients.
He stated that this new law provides a grateful opportunity for the residents of New Zealand that have been suffering from long-term critical disease and are stuck in pain, and this law will provide them their personal opinion to end their lives.
Lecretia Seales was a lawyer in New Zealand who was the first individual to start the campaign to end her life by assisting dying after she was diagnosed with a tumor inside her brain. Even after numerous efforts on her behalf, she was unsuccessful in the process and ended up dying five years ago due to the carcinogenic spread.
After his wife’s death, Matt Vickers gave his efforts to the campaign. The medical case of Ms. Seales played an important role in raising awareness regarding euthanasia, which lead towards catalyzing the politicians of New Zealand to properly address the underlying issue in the society.
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