End of Life choice act officially passes with 65% majority

WELLINGTON: NOV. 7 – Assisted dying will be legal in New Zealand from next year, with nearly two-thirds of voters in support of the End of Life Choice Act becoming law.

The Electoral Commission released the official results of the End of Life Choice Act referendum on Friday afternoon, including roughly 480,000 special votes.

A 50 percent majority was needed for the law to come into force. It will allow terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live to request assisted dying.

The preliminary results, released on October 30, showed 65.2 percent of New Zealanders voted in support of its legislation.

Friday’s official figures, released at 2 pm, showed 65.1 voted in favour of the Act, down just 0.1 percent after special votes were counted.

The “no” votes totalled 33.7 per cent, down 0.1 per cent from the preliminary results.

Overall, 2,908,071 New Zealanders voted in the referendum. Of those, 1,893,290 voted in support and 979,079 opposed the legislation.

A further 1.2 per cent – 35,702 – of the total votes were informal, where voting papers are either not marked or the voter’s intention is not clear.

Wellington Central had the highest number of ordinary ‘yes’ votes by the electorate, with 38,575 voting in support of the act. Māngere, in south Auckland, had the lowest number of ‘yes’ votes by the electorate, with just 8783 voting in favour.

The south Auckland electorate of Manurewa had the highest number of voters opposing the act in the country – 16,744 – while Auckland Central had the lowest number of ‘no’ votes, with 6432 recorded.

Of the special votes, 318,501 were cast in support of the act coming into force, while 162,603 were opposed.

Wellington Central also had the highest number of special votes in favour of the act, 7612, while Māngere had the highest number of ‘no’ special votes.

What now?

The End of Life Choice Act will come into effect in November 2021, allowing for safeguards and processes outlined in the act to be established.

From next year, people who meet the criteria will have the option of legally asking for medical assistance to end their lives.

The End of Life Choice Act referendum was historic: It was the first time legislation around assisted dying has been put to a public vote in New Zealand.

However, it is not the first time Parliament has attempted to legislate assisted dying or euthanasia in New Zealand, with three failed attempts since 1995.

This act, led by ACT Party leader David Seymour, had already been passed in Parliament by 69-51 votes, but the move to put it to a referendum put the final decision in the hands of the public.

What does the act allow?

Assisted dying, or euthanasia, is defined in the End of Life Choice Act as a doctor or nurse practitioner giving a person a lethal dose of medication to relieve their suffering by bringing on death, or, the taking of medication by a person to relieve their suffering by bringing on the death.

To be eligible for assisted dying under the act, a person must be suffering from a terminal illness likely to end their life within six months.

They must have a significant and ongoing decline in physical capability and experience unbearable suffering that cannot be eased in a manner that the person finds tolerable.

They have to be able to make an informed decision about assisted dying – showing they can understand and remember information and have the ability to communicate this decision in some way.

A person would not be eligible if the only reason they give is that they are suffering from a mental disorder or mental illness; have a disability of any kind; or because of their advanced age.

If a person requests assisted dying, two doctors – the person’s doctor and an independent doctor – must agree they meet the criteria.

If either is unsure of the person’s ability to make that decision, a psychiatrist needs to assess the person.

If eligible, the person chooses a method, date, and time for taking the lethal dose of medication.

At the time the person has chosen, the doctor or nurse practitioner must ask the person if they still choose to take the medication before it is given.

If they change their mind – which they can at any stage – the medication is taken away.

There are four methods in which the lethal medication can be administered under the act: ingestion, trigged by the person; intravenous delivery, triggered by the person; ingestion through a tube, triggered by the doctor or nurse practitioner; or injection, administered by the doctor or nurse practitioner.

Pentobarbital is the drug most commonly used in voluntary assisted dying in many jurisdictions which allow it, including the Australian state of Victoria.

In Victoria, most ingest the lethal dose of pentobarbital as a drink – a white powder mixed with about 30 millilitres of a liquid suspension.