By The Defender.

According to the 2020 New Zealand Health Survey, 21.5% of disabled adults were not able to visit a GP due to costs, compared to just 12.7% of non-disabled adults.

What this research indicates is that disabled adults are 2.3 times more likely not to be able to afford a doctor's visit, once adjustments were made for age and gender.

This alarming inequity echoes what #DefendNZ ambassador Dr Huhana Hickey forewarned before the End of Life Choice Act was passed by binding referendum in 2020.

“I am aware of how poverty and a lack of access to good medical interventions... lead to choices of desperation rather than a choice of free will,” Dr Hickey stated in a Stuff opinion piece.

As a Māori, lawyer and disability advocate who lives in constant pain, Dr Hickey warned introducing ‘assisted dying’ without addressing this very issue would put people with disabilities in vulnerable situations.

Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero says the review needs to address the fact many disabled New Zealanders cannot afford to visit a general practitioner.

While some in the lead up to the binding referendum of 2020 said those with disabilities would not be “at-risk” of adverse pressure to choose assisted dying, it’s scenarios like this which demonstrate it may not be an issue of choice for some; but that of no other option.

“Right from the very start of our advocacy on the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide, we tried to warn New Zealanders about the disproportionate burden that would be borne by the disability community as a result of legalisation” says #DefendNZ spokesperson Henoch Kloosterboer. 

“Promoters of this Act tried to downplay these risks, instead of listening and properly considering the way in which the disability community is put in harm's way by laws like this. The line between disability and being terminal with less than six months left to live can shift very, very quickly.” 

This is a reason why #DefendNZ made it a priority to have members of the disability community as part of our team of ambassadors. Their stories and insights can be viewed at www.defendnz.co.nz/ambassadors.

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