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Massive opposition to euthanasia bill

Lucinda Henry
morphine
David Seymour says the End of Life Choice bill will give people the power to choose to end their suffering.  unsplash

Over 90 per cent of submissions to parliament oppose the controversial euthanasia bill.

More than 39,000 submissions have been sent to parliament for the End of Life Choice bill, a record number of submissions for any bill in New Zealand.

The Care Alliance, a group of palliative care doctors opposed to the bill, spent hours analysing all of the submissions and found that 90.2 per cent of submissions opposed the bill. 

Dr Amanda Landers, a palliative care doctor in Canterbury says this is a reflection of how the majority of New Zealanders really feel about the topic.

"We've heard from the minority a lot with this bill. I think the majority have spoken here, people want to live," she says.

Dr Landers says that people just want to feel valued, and this bill doesn't do that.

"I've already seen people talk about being a burden in a way that I've never seen before this debate started. I think it's been really detrimental to our society".

Act Leader David Seymour's bill is currently in the the Select Committee stage of Parliament. He says his bill will give people power back in their life to choose to be able to put an end to their suffering.

"They want a safeguarded procedure that they can go through where they can end their suffering on their terms," Seymour says.

The bill was rejected once before in 2013. If it is successful this time and makes it thought to the third reading, then a public referendum could be held.