Health committee presents its report to the House on petition about assisted dying

The Health Committee has presented its report to the House on Petition 2014/18 of Hon Maryan Street and 8,974 others. A copy of the report is available here.

The petition asked that the House of Representatives investigate fully public attitudes towards the introduction of legislation which would permit medically-assisted dying in the event of a terminal illness or an irreversible condition which makes life unbearable.

To investigate public attitudes, we invited written submissions from the public and heard from submitters at hearings in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. Our report summarises what we considered during this process. We encourage everyone with an interest in the subject to read the report in full, and to draw their own conclusions based on the evidence presented in it.

Simon O’Connor, Chair of the Health Committee, said “This has been, by far, the largest parliamentary investigation into any subject ever undertaken. More than 21,000 unique written submissions is a record number and we heard from nearly 1,000 people who wished to speak to us in person. Assisted dying is a complicated, divisive issue and I am proud of the investigation undertaken by the committee. It is hard to imagine another enquiry delving into this subject as thoroughly as this one has.”

We would like to acknowledge Hon Maryan Street and all those who submitted on this petition.
ENDS

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