[00:00:04] Speaker A: Hi, my name is Brendan Malone and you're listening to the dispatches, the podcast that strives to cut through all the noise in order to challenge the popular narratives of the day with some good old fashioned contrarian thinking. You might not always agree, but at least you'll be taking a deeper look at the world around you.
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: My name is Brendan Malone.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: It is great to be back with you again in today's topic of conversation. New Zealand's latest euthanasia report reveals troubling new developments. Before I get into any of that, though, if you are listening and you've been tuning in now for a while and you like our content and you.
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[00:03:15] Speaker A: Right, let's jump into today's topic of conversation, New Zealand's latest euthanasia report, and.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: The troubling developments that it reveals.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: A couple of things before we jump into this.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: First of all, when I use the word euthanasia today in this episode, I am not using it in a technical specific sense unless I otherwise state that I am. So what I'm doing here is I'm using the word euthanasia in general to describe both euthanasia, which acts where the patient is killed by someone else, so someone else will actually administer a lethal injection to the patient, versus assisted suicide, which is where the patient receives a prescription and they take the lethal dose.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: Themselves without someone else doing that to them.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: So unless I otherwise specifically state it when I say euthanasia, I am using that as like a catch all phrase.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: For both euthanasia and assisted suicide.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: So just be aware of that. Secondly, and I want to get to this towards the end of the episode today, there are three very troubling cases that have been briefly, and I'll get.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: To that point in a moment, highlighted in the complaints section of the brand new annual euthanasia report.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: And I'm going to be focusing in.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: On those because there's some extremely troubling indications in there.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: But it's not just there.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Other parts of this report also reveal.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Some extremely troubling new developments about the practice of euthanasia here in New Zealand.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: For those who don't know, the registrar.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Of Euthanasia in New Zealand has to.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Produce an annual report every year that.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Contains data about what is going on.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: We'll get to the depth and breadth.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Of the report in just a moment because that's actually one of the issues with this particular reporting.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: But in general, what happens is once a year, usually sometime in June, there.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Is a report that is published this year.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: It came late, and it was only.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Published a few days ago.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Actually, not too much fanfare at all.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: But there is some very important reading in there.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: And so that's what we are going.
[00:05:26] Speaker C: To be breaking down today.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: So before we get to the things.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: That are really concerning and some of the key details, I just want to.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Go through and highlight a few things that really stuck out to me that I considered to be noteworthy and worthy.
[00:05:41] Speaker C: Of a bit of conversation here.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: The first is the continued use of the tirao mori phrase mate whaka ahuru.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: To describe the euthanasia service.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Now, mate Whakauru is not the direct.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Mori translation for assisted dying.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: It is not a technical description of what's going on. It is much worse than that. Mate whaka ahuru means to die in a warm and comforting manner in Mori.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: And so this is not simply a technical description. And this is why I have a.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Big problem with it. It is actually ideological and politically loaded language.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: It is not just telling you what euthanasia is, or the euphemism assisted dying is. It is telling you how you should.
[00:06:29] Speaker C: Think and feel about euthanasia.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: That it is a caring, compassionate way to die, to die in a warm and comforting manner, which obviously invites a very important question.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: If people aren't being euthanized, does that.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Mean that they are dying in a cold, harsh and brutal manner? Because that seems to be one of.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: The implications when you are using ideologically.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Loaded language like this.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: I don't think this should be the.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Terminology, the tarao mori name for this particular government department and the activities that it gets up to.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: I think even for someone who's a.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Liberal who might have supported this law, surely they can understand why this should.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Be ideologically neutral, specifically the way that it describes itself. Because the way they talk about themselves is the way they think about themselves. The way you think about yourself is.
[00:07:20] Speaker C: The way you will act in the world.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: It is world building.
[00:07:22] Speaker C: Language really does matter.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Now, when we get into the introduction of the report we see an admission of something that I have previously talked about on previous episodes and also in public presentations.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Some of you may have heard me.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Talk about this there about something that's been going on.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: But finally we see it in the.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Official reports, in the introduction, we see.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: This admission that people are being euthanized.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: On New Zealand beaches and, quote unquote, other locations of significance. Now, again, I think even your average pro euthanasia liberal who might have voted for this legislation had no idea that.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: This would result in acts of euthanasia.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Being carried out in public spaces.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: I don't know of any private beaches in New Zealand.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Maybe I'm wrong about this, but the fact that this is taking place on our beaches I don't think is acceptable. There have been at least two cases that I have personally read about that.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: I know in the media coverage were.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Carried out on New Zealand beaches, and it sounds like there might have actually.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Been others as well.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: But imagine the risk here to a vulnerable person, particularly, perhaps a vulnerable young.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Person, or even a young person who.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Previously wasn't considered to be particularly vulnerable, but they happen to be down in.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: The sand dunes or at the beach.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: One day, and they stumble across one.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Of these acts of euthanasia unfolding. Think about the implications of that.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: And I say that in all seriousness.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: As someone who several years ago had to go over to my next door.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Neighbor'S house after her husband had committed.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Suicide and try and comfort her and try and do what I could for her husband. It was very clear to me that.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: He was dead when I got there.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: It was just too late to save him.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: But I did my best to try and show her that someone fought for.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Her husband, even though I knew this.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Wasn'T actually going to be a successful thing for him. He was well and truly gone at that stage.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: But that particular incident stayed with me, and I don't consider myself to be someone particularly vulnerable. But that brush with death was significant.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Enough to remain with me at the.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Forefront of my mind for about a week now.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Imagine what happens to someone who is vulnerable.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: And we know already that suicide contagion.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Is a very real thing.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: We've been studying it for decades.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: All you need to have is someone.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: Reading about a suicide for a copycat to occur to when someone who's vulnerable is exposed to that kind of coverage. So imagine what happens if someone actually encounters this. This should not be happening on our beaches.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: End of story. If you're a die hard pro euthanasia fanatic, surely even you can agree this.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Should not be happening in public.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: This should be behind closed doors.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Secondly, in the introduction, we see already that efficiency is starting to take priority.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: In all of this.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Let me quote to you notably, for.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Those found eligible for assisted dying following assessment, there was an average of 16.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Days between initial formal application and eligibility approval.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: This is a decrease of two days compared with the last reporting period.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: So that's last year's annual report and.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Reflects the efforts made by the teams of medical practitioners and staff working to.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Support applicants and their whanau through this process.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: In other words, what they're doing here.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Is they are saying, we have done good work here because we are making this euthanasia and assisted suicide service more efficient. You get a quicker approval, which potentially means less of a discernment phase between when you decide you want this and.
[00:11:09] Speaker C: When the act can actually take place.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: So it's not safety that's taking priority and we will see that later in the report.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Again, it's actually efficiency. This is totally normal, by the way, for the managerial, bureaucratic machine, because bureaucracy.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Prioritizes processes and systems.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: It doesn't think in that same humane way. Bureaucracy is a very, very different machine.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: I was going to call it an animal, actually, but in reality it is. It's a machine.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: And you can see the machine here.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: The cogs are already starting to turn.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: And there are lots of implications that are hidden behind all of this.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: I was talking to a friend of mine just recently.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: She is a doctor who is in the New Zealand medical system. She works in the hospital system in New Zealand.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: And she just said to me very.
[00:12:01] Speaker C: Point blank the other day, Brendan, they're not going to want to actually restrict.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: This in any way because it's already.
[00:12:09] Speaker C: Quite an effective cost saving tool. And that's the reality that drives so many of the injustices and inhumanities that we see in our society. The efficiency of the machine that is driven by economic interests.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: And even when people talk about ideologies.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Like liberalism and choice, more often than nothing, the economic drivers are the things that are actually pushing the machine ever forward. Onwards, onwards, onwards. More lives, more brokenness, more harmful destruction to society in general that is caused as a result.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: They also state this in the introduction. The number of complaints received about the service remains low. Now, I read that and I thought.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: To myself, hold on, that's not particularly.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: Helpful because so much is actually hidden when it comes to the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Not only is it hidden and not.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Only is there not a particularly clear mechanism, or you might say, public awareness.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: About how you could even raise complaints.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: If you felt that you had one.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: To raise with the New Zealand government.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: But some of the actual complaints that they have highlighted, even given the dearth.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Of information that we have about what's going on, they are actually extremely concerning.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: And we'll get to that later in.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: The episode when we get to the.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Point of discussing three complaints in particular.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: That really stick out to me and there's big red sirens flashing when I read what I see on those pages.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: But it's not particularly helpful to say.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Well, the number of complaints we've received.
[00:13:46] Speaker C: Is low, so everything must be okay.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: This to me is concerning because it feels like the kind of thing that.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Someone or an organization would say when they don't really want to pull back.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: The rug and look underneath. Hey, look, everything looks fine from on top.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: But when you pull back the rug.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: You discover there's a whole lot of rot.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: So what do you do? You just don't go probing too deeply.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: You don't pull back the rug, you.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Take the bird's eye view and it's all good as long as no one's complaining. It feels to me like this is.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: The wrong thing, the very wrong thing to be taking this kind of approach with, because we are talking here about the possibility of deliberate, wrongful killing that is now state sanctioned in our country. And it seems that there should be a much greater commitment to scrutiny, active scrutinizing, not just waiting until someone lays a complaint. So it needs to be proactive, not reactive.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: The next couple of paragraphs that I read in the introduction I find extremely concerning and I guess in another sense, very typical of the current state of.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Affairs in the west.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: This introduction is written by Doctor Kirsten Good. She is the registrar of assisted dying.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: She is the Tsar, you might say, of euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand. And here's what she wrote in her introduction.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Engagement with international jurisdictions is a key.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Part of my role. I meet regularly with the chairs of the Australian Review boards with the objective of sharing insights and improving the quality.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: And safety of assisted dying services in New Zealand.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Do you notice the order there? It's not safety first, it's quality that.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Comes first when it comes to the.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: Practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: And that's not the first time or the only time you will see that.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Ordering in this report.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: I am also a member of the European Partnership of Supervisory organisations, assisted Dying working group. The purpose of my involvement with this group is to understand how various countries.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Have enacted and implemented assisted dying and.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: To explore the role of the regulator. In late 2023, I presented to the Irish Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, focusing on the new Zealand legislation, our implementation.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: Experience and the safeguards in the act, which there are not many of, by the way, in New Zealand. So hopefully Ireland does not replicate what.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: We'Ve done, because that's not a good.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Outcome for anybody, let alone Ireland.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: The number of countries offering assisted dying continues to grow.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: And with this growth comes the opportunity for us to engage further internationally, to.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Share our experiences, and to learn from.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: The other regulatory systems around the world. And the reason I highlight this is when I use the term globalism.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: I don't just see globalism as a.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: Question of borders, like, do you have them or not?
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Do you see yourself as a global.
[00:16:41] Speaker C: Citizen or as a member of a nation? In actual fact, it's much worse than that. It's much bigger than that. It is about a global technocracy that we have now. And this very much speaks to that. A group of technical experts in this.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Case, who specialise in the practice of.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Killing patients with euthanasia or assisting them.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: To take their own lives. And they now have a Kabul, an international Kabul that meets regularly, is sharing information, is working together. This is becoming far too common a thing now.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: And I would argue it's not actually a good thing at all.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: I would also raise serious questions about her claim, her opening claim there, that.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Engagement with international jurisdictions is a key.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Part of my role. Surely, in actual fact, the primary purpose of your role, and, in fact, I would suggest the only real, meaningful purpose of your role, is to oversee euthanasia and assisted suicide right here in our nation. It's about our people. It's surely supposed to be about safety. It seems to me that this feels a little bit too much like a type of activist juggernaut. Again, it's the managerial, bureaucratic class, but it's writ large. It is global now. It is bureaucrats working together to inflict.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Upon various nations across the entirety of.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: The world, these very bad ideas. And again, what's it focused on?
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Systems.
[00:18:08] Speaker C: It's about quality first, not safety.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: On page three and four of this annual report, we read something that I consider to be extremely concerning, and it is absolutely diabolical. I really mean that it is reprehensible that this has been allowed to happen.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: And by the looks of it, is still happening.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Let me read to you from the report.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: The end of life review committee is responsible for considering the death reports sent to them by the registrar under section.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: 21 of the act.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: The committee decides whether the death report.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Shows satisfactory compliance with section 21 of the act.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Its function is to make recommendations to the registrar about the death report information, should that be necessary. So let me just translate this for you.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: The end of life review committee is.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Made up of three people, and they.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Are supposed to meet regularly throughout the year.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: And their job is to look at every single death report that comes about as a result of every single euthanasia.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Every single assisted suicide in this country.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: And their job is to scrutinize those reports. And if they see problems, they are supposed to notify the registrar so that something can be done about it.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: This is your bare minimum of safety standards. Why?
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Because the patient is already dead.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: So if there is something that is awful that is going on, it's too.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Late, because you can't stop what's happened. It has already happened.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: You are looking past tense, but it.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Is the bare minimum safeguard that you should have.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: So that's what the role of this committee is.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Then we read this in the very next paragraph.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Following the resignation of one of the.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Committee members in late 2023, the work of the committee has been on hold pending the appointment of new members by.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: The minister of health.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: So, in other words, this bare minimum safeguard committee has not even been meeting, as the report states, following the resignation.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Of one of the committee members in late 2023, the work of the committee has been on hold pending the appointment of new members by the Ministry of Health.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Now, when you go to the Ministry of Health website right now, how many members are on this three person committee?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: According to the Ministry of health, there's only one person currently on the committee.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: So either they've got real problems with the way they are lacking in transparency about what's actually happening inside the euthanasia.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Juggernaut in this country.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: So they're not actually telling us who's.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: On the committee because they're so sloppy at doing their job and there's a.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Lack of transparency as a result.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Or there is actually only one person currently on that committee. And if it wasn't meeting with two.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: People, then there's no way they'd be meeting with only one person.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Right, because there is no committee unless.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: There'S at least two people. But surely the fact that they're not.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Meeting when they haven't got a full.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: Three people on the committee indicates that the committee doesn't actually exist unless it's got three people.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: How long has this been going on?
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Who the heck is checking the death reports of euthanasia killings and medical suicides in New Zealand?
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Because this report seems to indicate that that has not been happening for many months now.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: And that is the bare minimum safeguard. It is just shocking to me that.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: This can actually be allowed to happen.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: And they just so flippantly report it like it doesn't mean anything. This is one of the very few.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Mechanisms of accountability that we've actually got. It's supposed to exist to provide a level of safeguarding it's just insane to me.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: And it points to the total disregard and their basic duty of care that.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: The people who enacted and who are.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Carrying out this legislation are showing they don't care enough to do what should be the very basics.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Surely if you don't actually have this.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Supervisory committee in process, like you can't.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Bring the people together because you don't have a committee, surely the moral obligation.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Would be to actually stop the practice.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Of euthanasia dead in its tracks until.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: You'Ve actually established that committee again.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Otherwise, who's looking at the death reports?
[00:22:22] Speaker A: How long before we find out what the actual problems are? Are we going to have to wait many more months?
[00:22:28] Speaker B: This is just unbelievable.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: And it speaks to the absolute failure.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: And duty of care that is just riddled throughout this particular legislation that we.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Have been burdened with here in New Zealand. Page five of the report says this.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: The level of detail that can currently.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Be reported is limited due to the need to protect confidentiality of individuals using the services when there are a low number of cases to date. Well, we've actually had almost 1000 euthanasia deaths in New Zealand now, so I don't know what they would consider to be a high number. But surely that's getting up there. But regardless of that, I don't think this is good enough either because it.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Seems to me that the safety of.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: The New Zealand public should actually take priority here.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: You are literally talking about a bureaucratic.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Organisation that has been given power by the state, the legal power, to deliberately end the life of a patient or to assist them as they commit suicide. That is about as serious as it can get and it is about as risky as it can get. And so to say that privacy should be prioritised above open and full transparency about what is going on. Holy moly, that shows a complete disorder of priorities. Again, we shouldn't be surprised by this because the ordering of the goods is all distorted and dysfunctional when you are actively and deliberately ending the lives of patients anyway. So don't be surprised when other goods.
[00:24:04] Speaker C: Actually suffer as well and are not properly prioritized.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: But in a nutshell, privacy should not.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Be put above public safety in this particular instance.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Now here are the key numbers and.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Before I get into any of these.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: I should highlight a very important fact. There are problems and there have been problems right from day one with the data collection and or the data reporting.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Here in New Zealand.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: It might be a reporting problem or it might be a collection problem or it might be both. But there has been a problem right from the beginning, the way data has.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Been reported in places hasn't just been confusing at times, but it seems to be contradictory in places.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: And so right now, I know of someone, as of 12 hours ago, who.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Has submitted an official Information act request.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: To try and clarify exactly what is going on with a mismatch of numbers within the reporting processes we have here.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: There are numbers that don't add up like they should. So the question is, why is it this way? What's going on and what's being done.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: To actually rectify these reporting issues? But here's what we have as the basic and key broad brushstrokes in this latest report. Over the past year, there were 834 new formal applications.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: So just in the last year alone, 834 brand new applications were made for.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: Euthanasia or assisted suicide.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: That's an average of more than two per day.
[00:25:38] Speaker C: Every single day of the year.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: The number of active applications has increased, according to this report, by 11% since the 2023 annual report. So they have jumped.
[00:25:52] Speaker C: And by 11% since last year's report.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Of the 834 new applications received over the past year, 82% were white.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: That is a very typical phenomenon around the world.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: White, wealthy and worried tends to be the consistent trend with the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: 4%, a mere 4%, were mori, and just 0.48%. Not even 0.5, not even half of 1%, were pacific peoples. And like I said to a group of Pacifica christian leaders a couple of.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: Years ago, when talking about this issue to them, you guys are like the.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Prophets in our midst, because you actually, generally speaking, care for your elderly people.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: In a very dedicated and humane kind of way. And the notion of euthanasia, or even.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Leaving them in a rest home by.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: Themselves is just not something normative to the Pasifika culture. They have a genuine kavod, the Bible would call it. When it says in the fifth commandment.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Honour your mother and father.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: It means there. Or it says in the original Hebrew, give kavod, give weight to your mother and father. It doesn't just mean obey their instructions. What it actually means is honour them for their place in the social, communal, familial hierarchy. Honour them because they are your mother and your father, regardless, even of their behaviour, regardless of what age or stage of life they happen to be. They are owed honour by virtue of the fact that they are your mother or your father. And you see that very actively lived out by the Pacifica community, 51% of.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Euthanasia and assisted suicide cases were male 78% were 65 or older.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: There is some strange categorization in this report. It feels just far too broad for.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Me to give us transparency. So, for example, there are 2.52% last year of euthanasia cases. That's 21 people who were aged 18.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: To 44 years of age.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: To me, this just feels like far too broad a category. Were these people 18 and 19 mostly, or were they 42, 43 and 44 mostly? It's just not helpful. And there, I think, needs to be a lot greater clarity about what's going on here, because I don't know about you, but I'd want to know if.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Suddenly there was a massive spike in people aged 18 to 25 seeking out euthanasia in this country. That is something that surely we all have a vested interest in knowing exactly.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: What'S going on there, but we can't.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Know if we actually can't see 24.22%. So that's pretty much on one in four people were not receiving palliative care at the time of the application.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: So what this means is that there.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Are people regularly, one in four people.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Who apply for euthanasia in this country.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Are applying for it despite the fact.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: That they aren't actually receiving palliative care.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: The basic end of life care, they're not receiving it and they're going straight to euthanasia.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Surely this demands an investigation. Surely we have an obligation to try.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: And find out what's going on here.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Are people going to euthanasia because they.
[00:29:02] Speaker C: Are nothing, getting the care that they.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Are entitled to and should be receiving.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: As a basic standard? Is this really choice in these cases? Even if some of them are in.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: That camp and others are not, we need to know about this.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: This is not good.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: And by the way, that's about 202.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: People we're talking about over the last year.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: This is not an insignificant number of.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: People in this category, and even more importantly, this category of people who are.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Not receiving palliative care at the time.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: They make a request for euthanasia has.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Increased in the first year or so.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: It was about one in five. Now it's gone up to approximately one in four.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: So this problem needs to be properly investigated and understood.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: We also see some big spikes in.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: The practice of euthanasia in our country.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: In fact, it's been quite a radical.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Shift over the past year.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: The number of applications. This is people applying to have permission.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: To be euthanized or to have a medical suicide.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: The number of applications per quarter, obviously, a year, as you're aware, is broken.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Down into four three month blocks, four different quarters, and they record data and they keep the numbers for each separate quarter and the applications.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: The number of applications per quarter has now risen from.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: From 60 applications in the very first quarter when we started euthanasia three years ago.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: This is the end of 2021 to 299. Almost 300 applications in the latest quarter.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: That's the quarter, the three month period that ended at the end of June this year. So it's gone from 60 to 300 applications per quarter.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: To give you an idea of even.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: How recently, this jump has climbed quite.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Radically the previous quarter, before the June 1.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: So the first quarter of 2024, there were 194 applications.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: By the end of June, that had.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Climbed to 299 applications. It had increased by more than 100 applications per quarter.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Deaths per quarter has now also risen.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: As you can imagine, in the very.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: First quarter, there were just 16 euthanasia deaths.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: That's right, back in 2021. We now, as of the latest data that we have.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: So this is the three month period.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Ending June in 2024.
[00:31:30] Speaker C: This year, there are now 126 deaths by euthanasia or assisted suicide in the latest quarter.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: To give you an idea of how.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: Much that has radically leapt up as.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Well in the previous quarter. So that's the first quarter, the first three months of 2024. This year, there were 88 euthanasia killings.
[00:31:52] Speaker C: Or medical suicides in this country. It's now jumped to 126 as of the end of June.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Total euthanasia and assisted suicides over the past twelve months in New Zealand is 344.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Now, this is concerning for a couple of reasons.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: First of all, some of the leading proponents of euthanasia were making the false.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Claim in the lead up to legalisation.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: That this would be a very, very tiny group of people. It would be in the tens.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: In fact, some of them were claiming.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Well, in actual fact, it is as we always knew it would be.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: It's in the hundreds and it's climbing.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: It is showing no intention of levelling off.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: The trajectory in New Zealand over the.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: Last three years has been a consistent upward trajectory. If you look at the data from beginning to end, it is not levelled off anywhere.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: It is still climbing.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: Now, to give you a sense of.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Why we should be concerned about this, just 24 hours or so ago, the latest annual report for New Jersey in America was published and they legalized euthanasia in 2019. So they are pretty similar in timeframe to us, slightly ahead of us, but not much. Last year in New Jersey, they had a total of 101 euthanasia cases, people.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Whose lives were deliberately ended by the state.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Now, we had 344.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: We had more than three times that number.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: And here's the really shocking bit. New Jersey has a population that is almost double ours.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: They are 9.2 million people.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: And yet somehow they have managed to have three, more than three times lower.
[00:33:36] Speaker C: Euthanasia cases than we have here in New Zealand.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: So something isn't good here and unfortunately.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: It is developing in the wrong direction.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: A big part of the problem here.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Too, as we are going through what.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: I would, I guess, just speaking honestly, would call a euthanasia honeymoon phase, because.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: We'Re not actually getting a real sense.
[00:33:55] Speaker C: Of what's really going on. And the great danger here is that we are being desensitised to the very real dangers and problems because we're not really understanding them.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: And one of the big problems with.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: This is the fact that when you are lulled into a state of infatuation.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: With someone or something, you tend to.
[00:34:15] Speaker C: Turn a blind eye to the problems.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: You downplay problems.
[00:34:19] Speaker C: And what happens is when people come calling, like they are doing right now.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: To try and expand the practice of.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Euthanasia in our country and include even.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: More and more categories of people, into.
[00:34:32] Speaker C: The euthanasia and assisted suicide juggernaut, then.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: We'Re more likely to say yes, or.
[00:34:38] Speaker C: Just turn a blind eye and be indifferent about what is going on. And then, of course, at that point, all of the really big problems start to manifest and unfold.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: There are already serious issues here.
[00:34:49] Speaker C: But the problem, I think, will only get worse, sadly, because of this euthanasia infatuation that we have this honeymoon phase where we are fooled into thinking that there's no risk, when in actual fact we are dancing on the head of.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: A razor blade the whole time, just.
[00:35:04] Speaker C: Waiting to fall off.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: The overwhelming majority of people who were killed last year. So we had 344 euthanasia and medical suicides over the past twelve months.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: The overwhelming majority, according to the latest data, were killed by lethal injection.
[00:35:20] Speaker C: So that's euthanasia, about 92%.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: And that generally is consistent with what.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: The global trend has been as well. It seems to be about 80 plus percent of people are euthanized. They are not medical suicide.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Page nine, by the way, which reports.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: The data about dying, has a section.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Where it talks about where people are dying. And despite the fact that we are.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Told explicitly in the introduction that people.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Have died on New Zealand beaches, there's.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: No mention of this in the graph or the data talking about where people have died.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Which raises the very obvious question, why does it not list those places, even though they've been explicitly mentioned as places where this is actually happening, why are.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: They not listed in the actual graph showing you where people have carried out or have had this act done to them?
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Page eleven of the report. And this is really troubling because one of the mechanisms that's available to people, to medical professionals under the Euthanasia act is that they can refer a patient.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: For a psychiatric assessment.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Now in New Zealand they can be referred.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: This should have been surely the bare minimum requirement.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: So if a patient says doctor, I want to end my life, previously, what.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: The doctor would have said is, okay.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: We need to help this person, we need to figure out what's going on. And of course that would have involved.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: Mental health care support services of some.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Kind or other in that person's life.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: To get to the bottom of what the crisis was.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Now this has completely shifted.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: The legalisation of euthanasia has put all.
[00:36:54] Speaker C: Of us at risk in this way.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Because there is a shifting now within the ethos, the practice, the thinking of medical professionals. And you can see that manifested.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: So in New Zealand you don't have.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: To refer for a psychiatric assessment.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: In my humble opinion, it should have been a bare minimum requirement. So every time a patient says I want to die, they should have been.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: Referred for a psychiatric assessment as a.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: Standard practice so that you can absolutely be certain that this person is not.
[00:37:21] Speaker C: Speaking from a place of depression, anxiety or some other mental health crisis.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: So it's not a requirement in New Zealand, it doesn't have to be done. And what is very telling is that on page eleven of this report we.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: Discover that only ten applicants in total were referred for a psychiatric assessment over the past twelve months of this reporting period. That is less than 1%. It's not even 1%, it's about 0.85% or something like that. It's not even a whole 1%. Of the people who have applied for euthanasia, the overwhelming majority are going straight.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: From saying to a doctor, I want.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: To die to having the doctor say, okay then.
[00:38:08] Speaker C: And to me that is troubling because what that indicates is the mindset and the practice of medicine has shifted in.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: This regard because previously if a person.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Said that to a doctor, the doctor.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: Would say, oh my gosh, I. There could well be a very serious problem here.
[00:38:22] Speaker C: In fact, they would recognise there was a problem. What can we do to help?
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Now the mindset is, oh, there is no problem except in rare cases. Now, what's even more troubling though, for.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Me, and this is something I only.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: Discovered in this brand new report, Page.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Eleven tells us the attending medical practitioner and independent medical practitioners, that's the medical.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: Professionals involved in these individual cases of euthanasia or assisted medical suicide, may request.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: A psychiatrist from the SEns group list. Now, the Sens group is the support and consultation for end of life in.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: New Zealand group and they have a.
[00:38:56] Speaker C: List of doctors who are willing to.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Participate in this act. And so they may go to this.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: List for, quote, unquote, their opinion on whether the person requesting the option of.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Receiving assisted dying is competent to make an informed decision about assisted dying. Now, first of all, the wording of.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: This is kind of interesting to me.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Because the framing is not actually where it should be. The framing is not about whether or.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Not they're experiencing a mental health crisis.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: It is simply, are they mentally competent? Which is actually different. It might seem like splitting hairs, but in actual fact this is quite an important distinction. It's a very different thing to say.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: This person has a mental health crisis.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Or they are being driven by a mental health crisis versus saying, is this person cogent and aware of what's going on? You can be both cogent and aware and mentally competent and also be someone.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Who is experiencing a mental health crisis. So the framing is interesting to me.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: But leaving that aside, here's what the report tells us.
[00:40:02] Speaker C: The official description of the Sens group.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Is the Sens group maintains a list of health practitioners willing to provide assisted dying services in New Zealand and is responsible for the clinical guidelines for administering medication for an assisted death and the standard of care for assisted dying in New Zealand.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: So in other words, these are the medical professionals who are willing to actually deliberately end the lives of patients with.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: Euthanasia or assist them in their suicides. And they are primarily responsible for the overseeing of the practice, like what's actually.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Going on at the coalface here in New Zealand?
[00:40:38] Speaker B: And why am I highlighting all of.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: This in relation to what I've just read you about the fact that practitioners can seek out a psychiatrist to evaluate a patient?
[00:40:49] Speaker B: Well, I was under the impression that.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Those psychiatrists would actually be truly independent. But in actual fact, according to the report, those psychiatrists are coming from within.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: The Sens group list.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: So effectively there is a process here where there is a lack of transparency, there is a lack of a hands off relationship. These psychiatrists are too close to the practice, is what I'm saying here.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: And what you need in this instance, surely is truly independent psychiatric advice. Just to give you a sense of.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: The mere ten applicants who were referred for a psychiatric assessment last year. That's less than 1% of all people who applied a mere one of those people was ruled to be incompetent and.
[00:41:38] Speaker C: Therefore not able to have a euthanasia or assisted suicide. So just one person. That's it.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: There needs to be greater independence and.
[00:41:48] Speaker C: Transparency about all of this.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: The fact that it's not compulsory is.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Shocking enough, but the fact that even this optional quote unquote safeguard is not really, truly hands off, I don't think that's good enough.
[00:42:00] Speaker C: It needs to have an absolute independence about what's going on here.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Page 13 says this feedback is critical to improving the quality, safety and equity.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Of assisted dying services.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: It's quite astounding to me that what you see here is even the word equity. In other words, we've got to make it even more equitable for people to have their lives deliberately ended. Doesn't that speak to the brutality, the inhumanity of a bureaucratic liberal managerial regime driven by economic concerns, driven by a.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: Atomization of the person away from authentic community, a lifeless and sterile lack of care and genuine concern for the people themselves who are caught up in the machinery of this awful beast?
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Feedback is critical to improving the quality.
[00:42:57] Speaker C: Safety and equity of assisted dying services.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: How about this instead?
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Why does this statement not say something.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Like preventing wrongful deaths and other serious harms is critical to assisted dying services in New Zealand? Why is it not more focused and more strongly worded towards protecting people?
[00:43:17] Speaker B: In fact, safety, as you heard there, like we've seen previously in this report.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Isn'T even listed as the top priority.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: The first on that list is quality safety comes second. The fact that this has happened is a freudian slip. The mask has dropped.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: It reveals the true reality of what's actually going on here.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: I think.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: See, you need to understand that the.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Euthanasia law that David Seymour and our previous parliamentarians wrought upon the people of New Zealand is not only woefully deficient.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: Due to an abject failure in that.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Basic duty of care on the part.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Of our previous parliament, but it has.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: Almost certainly been deliberately designed this way.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: It certainly feels that way to protect.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Euthanasia at the expense of accountability and public safety.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Which brings me to the most troubling aspect of this report, the summary of official complaints.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: And there are very few details here. This is where there is scant information.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: And it aids secrecy and cover up. We can't see as the public what's.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Actually going on behind the curtain here.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: And this is very troubling. Now, what we do know is this.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: There are 15 complaints according to this.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: Report that have been received by the ministry. Another seven complaints were received by the.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: Health and Disability Commissioner and there were.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: Three of these complaints in total across both categories that really stood out to.
[00:44:45] Speaker C: Me as extremely concerning.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: Complaint number 13 received by the ministry.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: In March of this year.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: And it says this, there's very little.
[00:44:54] Speaker C: Information available, by the way, and it.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: Says this, concerns raised about the administration.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Of the assisted dying medication without compliance.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: With the act being confirmed. So firstly, that's all we're told about what's happened here. There's no clarity about exactly what happened.
[00:45:12] Speaker C: In this situation, which sounds extremely troubling.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: When you read what the outcome is. And it says this referred to the HDC Health and disability commissioner, the New Zealand Police and the Medical Council ongoing.
[00:45:27] Speaker C: At the time of this report.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: So the fact that it's gone to.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: The New Zealand police would surely indicate that something serious has gone on here.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: And we are talking here about deliberate killing.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: Why are there not more details?
[00:45:40] Speaker A: This to me feels like a woefully inadequate lack of transparency. Complaint number two listed on the list.
[00:45:49] Speaker B: That was given to the health and disability commissioner says this. The complainant raised concerns about the adequacy of the consumer's amp assessment before the assisted death.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: Concerns were also raised about possible family coercion. So the person who has died, someone.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: Here is alleging that they were coerced into the killing.
[00:46:13] Speaker A: Remember, that's not supposed to happen.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: This is a very serious issue and.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: All we get as an outcome is.
[00:46:20] Speaker B: Ongoing at the time of this report.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: There is not enough information here. We as the public have an obligation to demand more and we have, I believe, a right to expect better than this. Because quite frankly, despite the absurdity of.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Liberalism which tries to claim, well, it.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: Doesn'T harm you what my choices are. That is an absolute absurdity. That is like someone saying, look, the.
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Local public swimming pool now has a.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Urinating and a non urinating section.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: And if you don't want to swim in the urine, just swim at the.
[00:46:52] Speaker A: Other end of the pool and you'll be fine. You see, all of our choices happen.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: In a communal context and they spill over into the community.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: It is an absurdity to try and.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Silo choices off, especially when we are.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Talking about a choice and a legally mandated power to kill patients in this country that is given and overseen by the state. It is absurd. It is childish nonsense to speak as if that has no communal implications whatsoever. In actual fact, I believe we have a right to know what is going.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: On with much greater clarity.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Now you don't have to give away.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Specific names and addresses.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: Totally understand all that.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: But surely much more clarity so that.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: At the very least, those small handful.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Of New Zealand journalists who are still interested in doing journalism and have not.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Been co opted by the pro euthanasia.
[00:47:41] Speaker C: Lobby to just lobby for them, can actually provide public accountability.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: And we can all get to see a real, authentic, truthful window into what.
[00:47:50] Speaker C: Is going on here. Which brings me to complaint number seven that has been received by the Health and disability commissioner.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: And it says this, the complainant raised.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Concerns about assisted dying medication.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: So this is the lethal drugs that are given to people, being administered to a consumer without formal approval.
And what do we see is happening right now? It says ongoing at the time of this report. These are literally just bureaucratic codings.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: Ongoing at the time of this report. Ongoing at the time of this report.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: There's no clarity about what is going on. There is no clarity about what sort.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Of accountability is happening here because again, this sounds extremely serious. The complainant raised concerns about assisted dying.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Medication being administered to a consumer without formal approval.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: So what exactly has happened here?
[00:48:44] Speaker A: This doesn't sound good, but we don't know. It's cloaked in secrecy because apparently privacy.
[00:48:52] Speaker C: Is more paramount than public safety.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: I think now looking at this, that we are probably just a matter of.
[00:48:59] Speaker C: Months away from discovering some truly awful euthanasia case in this country.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: One of those cases that you read.
[00:49:05] Speaker C: About in foreign jurisdictions that shocks most people. I think it's a matter of time now. And what I'm reading here indicates that already that there is a perfect storm of things that are all coming together in place to create an environment where this is more likely to be an outcome now.
[00:49:22] Speaker A: So can I encourage you?
[00:49:24] Speaker C: Make your submission.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: You have a couple of weeks left.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: To make a submission to the Ministry of Health as a member of the public.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: Anyone can do this. It's easy.
[00:49:33] Speaker C: Do this online, Google, end of life Choice review. And the very first option that comes up, I checked it again this morning, is the website on the Ministry of Health, the page on the Ministry of Health where you can go and you.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Can step through the process and you.
[00:49:44] Speaker C: Can do it all online.
[00:49:45] Speaker B: Make your submission.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: We need greater transparency. We need greater clarity. We need greater accountability.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Why is the oversight committee not meeting?
[00:49:53] Speaker A: We need to ask that question. Why are people able to have medical suicides or euthanasias on public beaches? No one voted for that. The parliamentarians didn't approve that. Some policy bureaucrat within the managerial machine.
[00:50:09] Speaker C: Made that decision without any oversight or accountability.
So make your submission.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: Probe away, push hard, ask the right questions.
[00:50:18] Speaker C: Because this matters. It matters a hell of a lot. We are talking here about public safety and protecting the elderly and other vulnerable members of our community. And so the very least that we can do is take some time to engage with this process. Now. Ya, I am, as I said to a radio interviewer this morning when talking about this issue, I am a hopeful realist. I am realistic about the cultural decline and the collapse, the state of collapse that we find ourselves living through right now. And I am realistic about the implications of all of that. But I am still a man of faith and I am still as a.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Disciple of Christ, a person of hope.
[00:50:53] Speaker C: So I don't fall into the sin of despair and pessimism and nihilism.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: No.
[00:50:58] Speaker C: But I am a realist. I am not some blind optimist about this. And so as a person of hope, I turn up, I engage, I do my bit for goodness, truth and beauty.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: I can't save the world.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: I can't save my country. It's not my job, but what I can do. As I can tend carefully to the patch of garden around me, I can cultivate that patch of garden that has been entrusted to me, that little patch within my family, within my local community. And when opportunities like this arise, for.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: Me to be able to make public.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Submissions on behalf of my family, my.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: Community, my church, et cetera, think about.
[00:51:31] Speaker C: The vulnerable, think about the elderly and make the submission on their behalf. If nothing else. Thanks again for tuning in. Don't forget, live by goodness, truth and beauty, not by lies. And I will see you next time on the dispatches fire.
[00:51:47] Speaker D: Can't you see it too?
Lighing up the room we stand here watching as the house we the belt is burning down am I the only one who sees the ashes on the ground?
I can get it off my mind still thinking someday we'll be fine but here we are the flames take everything I dreamed about how many tear drops will it say to put the fire out?
Oh I just wanna cry our love is just smoke in the sky ooh I'm waiting for the day you say you're so sorry oh I wanna move on but I'm still wishing that I'm wrong still hoping for the moment when you say you love me so come home.
