Your Voice Counts: Calling for Submissions on the End of Life Choice Bill.

Parliament’s Justice Select Committee are calling for New Zealanders to submit their views on David Seymour’s ‘End of Life Choice’ Bill, which seeks to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand.

While many of you will have made a submission to the Health Select Committee inquiry about ‘Ending Life in New Zealand’, this is a different inquiry specifically about the ‘End of Life Choice’ Bill.

On the weekend of the 27 and 28 January, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops will be sending a letter to all parishes in New Zealand for Masses, encouraging everyone to make their voices heard on this crucial issue by making a submission. This will be accompanied by a fact sheet on euthanasia and assisted suicide, and a submission guide providing information on how to make a submission.

The Health Select Committee inquiry demonstrated the power of individual voices for affirming life. Because of the overwhelming number of submissions against euthanasia, parliament took notice. Your voice counted then. But it’s important to do it again.

The submissions are a chance for you to have your say and to affirm life by taking a stand against David Seymour’s Bill. They will inform the Justice Select Committee’s report and provide an important gauge of public opinion on the Bill. This, in turn, will inform what MPs think of the Bill and how they may vote at the Bill’s second reading.

To quote from the Bishops letter to all Catholics: “It is a powerful witness when the entire Catholic community is united around a point of belief and action – the upholding of the dignity of human life - which is so central to our faith and pivotal to an inclusive and caring society.”  

This excellent video discusses the complexities and risks associated with euthanasia and assisted suicide. 

Please note that the submissions deadline has been extended and now closes on 6 March 2018 so it’s important to act now. Submissions can be made online at the Parliament website, by email, or by post.

This is about your voice. Make it heard. Make it count.