Helping Kiwis

By The Defender. Media coverage of the assisted suicide and euthanasia anniversary last week has made it clear there’s been an unfettering of any tether to balance and fairness on the issue. It’s been a week of “celebration” for the first anniversary of the End of Life Choice Act operating in our country and the media stories by Stuff and NZ Herald have been shocking.

By The Defender. One year on. This week marks an anniversary not to be forgotten; but also not to be celebrated. It is one year since the End of Life Choice Act has been operational in New Zealand. We have lost more than 214 lives to assisted suicide and euthanasia as a result. And tragically, more than 596 people have applied for access to the lethal dose.

By Henoch Kloosterboer. With the welcome departure of former Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard, there’s been a lot of talk about the public scandals that have plagued his tenure. There is one very serious incident, however, that you probably aren’t aware of – that #DefendNZ were one of the first victims of Trevor Mallard’s authoritarian excesses at Parliament.

By The Defender. It has now been almost ten months since the practice of assisted suicide and euthanasia began in our country, and recently the first official reports were published detailing what has happened in New Zealand over that period. Significant issues identified include a lack of detailed reporting, lack of palliative care uptake, misleading New Zealanders and much more.

By The Defender. A recent article investigated what it described as the “mess” of palliative care. Timaru woman, Jackie Goodfellow, whose husband Ron had recently died from terminal lung cancer, had an experience that mirrors many in New Zealand. Supports are simply not accessible.