The Final Choice: End of Life Suffering

Is Assisted Dying the Answer?

Caralise Trayes

• Publisher: Capture & Tell Media
• eBook ISBN: 9780473524524
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Nursing
• Index: Social Sciences

A Kiwi journalist on the hunt for the truth about assisted dying and the End of Life Choice Act. Join her on a journey of discovery as she tells the stories of those with terminal illness and interviews lawyers, doctors, ethicists and clerics around New Zealand and the world.

"The decision about whether or not to legalise euthanasia is the single most important values decision of the 21st century." - Professor Margaret Somerville

"It runs against every benefit of the law that protects human life that we have had in our country since the legal system was established." - Grant Illingworth QC

"We are offering sanctuary and serenity, and a safe harbour where people can peacefully make their own choice. Opponents will do and say just about anything to undermine it." - David Seymour MP

"I am the doctor potentially injecting this lethal drug. I have to be for, or against. I can't abstain from this." - Dr Sinéad Donnelly

Written in a remarkably personable way while plunging into some of life's most challenging topics, Caralise separates fact from fallacy, and resurfaces with intriguing results. Includes interviews from David Seymour MP, Shirley Seales (mother of the late Lecretia Seales), and Mary Panko of the End-of-Life Choice Society, as well as influencer and disabilities advocate Claire Freeman, palliative care expert Professor Roderick MacLeod MNZM and Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoreiro MNZM among many others.

“The decision about whether or not to legalise euthanasia is the single most important values decision of the 21st century.”

— Professor Margaret Somerville

“We are offering sanctuary and serenity, and a safe harbour where people can peacefully make their own choice. Opponents will do and say just about anything to undermine it.”

— David Seymour MP

“It runs against every benefit of the law that protects human life that we have had in our country since the legal system was established.”

— Grant Illingworth QC

“I am the doctor potentially injecting this lethal drug. I have to be for, or against. I can’t abstain from this.”

— Dr Sinéad Donnelly

Copyright ©2020 Caralise Trayes

Capture & Tell Media

Email: [email protected]

www.captureandtell.nz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except with brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Front cover photography: Kevin Carden

Back cover photography: Twigs & Sticks Media

Proofreading: Mary Dobbyn

Typesetting and layout: Janet Curle

National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa)

Title: The Final Choice. End of Life Suffering: Is Assisted Dying the Answer?

ISBN: 978-0-473-52451-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-473-52452-4 (epub)

Subjects: Euthanasia, Assisted Dying, Medical / Nursing / Palliative Care, Social Science: Death & Dying, Family & Relationships: Death, Grief & Bereavement, Life Stages / Later Years, Medical / Nursing / Social, Ethical & Legal Issues, New Zealand Non-Fiction

First printing 2020 New Zealand

International listing 2020 www.ingramspark.com

Contents

Preface

Section 1: Introduction

Personal Accounts:

1. Vicki Walsh

2. Lecretia Seales

Section 2: The Overview

3. The End of Life Choice Act

4. Renée Joubert

5. Mary Panko

Personal Account:

6. Claire Freeman

Section 3: Medical Perspectives

7. Dr Sinéad Donnelly

8. Professor Roderick MacLeod MNZM

9. Professor Margaret Somerville

10. Dr Jack Havill

Personal Account:

11. Dr Huhana Hickey MNZM

Section 4: Legal Thoughts

12. Richard McLeod

13. Grant Illingworth QC

14. Robert Preston

Personal Account:

15. Paula Tesoriero MNZM

Section 5: International Comparisons

16. Jane Silloway-Smith

17. Professor Theo Boer

18. Cases

19. David Seymour MP

Personal Account:

20. Rev. John Fox

Section 6: Religious Responses

21. Dr John Kleinsman

22. Professor David Richmond

23. Mustafa Farouk QSM

Conclusion

Epilogue

A Good Ending

Further Resources

Preface

My mum said something profound to me the other day. She told me I’m part of a generation that for the first time in history has seen a global, unified response to an invisible threat.

Never in the history of humanity have more than 180 nations across the world closed their borders and put their nations into a coma to stem a pandemic like COVID-19. It’s an unprecedented move of solidarity that will forever be marked in the books of mankind. A commonality that has spanned cultures, continents and civics like only a few other things in life can.

It’s forced people on the front lines of the medical field to make impossible decisions over which lives are worth saving, and compelled nations to put the economy in second place to the health of its citizens. For many it’s brought us face to face with the uncomfortable reality of death. Yet in the midst of isolation it has also forced us to consider how we live life.

It’s a strange time then to be faced with another life-and-death dilemma when, during the same year, we will be confronted wi...

Table of contents

• Preface
• 2. Lecretia Seales (Personal Account)
• Section 2: The Overview
• 4. Renée Joubert
• 5. Mary Panko
• 6. Claire Freeman (Personal Account)
• Section 3: Medical Perspectives
• 8. Professor Roderick MacLeod MNZM
• 9. Professor Margaret Somerville
• 10. Dr Jack Havill
• 11. Dr Huhana Hickey MNZM (Personal Account)
• Section 4: Legal Thoughts
• 13. Grant Illingworth QC
• 14. Robert Preston
• 15. Paula Tesoriero MNZM (Personal Account)
• Section 5: International Comparisons
• 17. Professor Theo Boer
• 18. Cases
• 19. David Seymour MP
• 20. Rev. John Fox (Personal Account)
• Section 6: Religious Responses
• 22. Professor David Richmond
• 23. Mustafa Farouk QSM
• Conclusion
• Epilogue
• A Good Ending
• Further Resources