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Speaker 1: Right. The public are being invited to weigh in on

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Speaker 1: the End of Life Choice Act once again. The Ministry

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Speaker 1: is required to review the operation within three years of

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Speaker 1: it coming into force. So this is the time for

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Speaker 1: the review. Let's get the review happening. Do we need

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Speaker 1: to make changes? Do we not? Now? The Government will

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Speaker 1: not make changes to the Act following the review. However,

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Speaker 1: individual political parties can then progress changes through members' bills.

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Speaker 1: So so far since this came into place, three hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty four people have chosen assisted dying. This is

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Speaker 1: in the year to March. So to discuss this, I'm

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Speaker 1: joined by Dr Brian Betty. Here's the Chair of General Practice,

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Speaker 1: New Zealand. Good afternoon, Brian.

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Speaker 2: Good lead Jean Andrew.

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Speaker 1: By your measure, has assisted dying being a success so far?

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Speaker 2: Well? Certainly in the conversations I've had around this and

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Speaker 2: sat listen to the sector, it seems to have worked

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Speaker 2: in the way it was designed to do. So I

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Speaker 2: haven't heard that there's been a big problems in terms

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Speaker 2: of what it's done, but the way it was designed,

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Speaker 2: the way it was put into place, seems to be

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Speaker 2: working as intended. And I suppose that would be my comment.

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Speaker 1: However, some people have expressed a design to make it

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Speaker 1: better that it currently is. For instance, a lot of

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Speaker 1: rest homes won't let their clients advanced conversations about getting

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Speaker 1: into the process, and that's called organizational conscientious objection. That

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Speaker 1: sort of thing should be debated, don't you think, I.

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Speaker 2: Think around the edges of this, You're actually right, that's

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Speaker 2: where the tension will arise. So how the acts being implemented,

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Speaker 2: the safeguards around it, the restrictions that are in place,

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Speaker 2: and how that works. I'm always the intention an ability

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Speaker 2: to participate in news of Asia was always voluntary. That

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Speaker 2: was always the intention. I believe that's the way it

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Speaker 2: should be. And yeah, there are absolutely certain certain facilities

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Speaker 2: for a number of reasons don't want to engage in that.

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Speaker 2: But again I suppose the reason for doing a review

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Speaker 2: like that is to uncover those type of issues and

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Speaker 2: to see how this has been operating and if there

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Speaker 2: are any things there that we should be thinking about

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Speaker 2: going forward.

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Speaker 1: And surely at the heart of this whole issue is

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Speaker 1: personal responsibility. It's the ultimate personal responsibility, So it should

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Speaker 1: be down to the individual themselves rather than the organization

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Speaker 1: that might be you know, accommodating them at any one time.

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Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of there's a number of

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Speaker 2: arguments around that, both for that approach and against that approach. Again,

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Speaker 2: you know a number of practitioners, health practitioners and organizations

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Speaker 2: have taken a particular stance against euthanasia as such, and

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Speaker 2: is their right to do that. So I think this

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Speaker 2: is an ongoing debate, It will be an ongoing issue

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Speaker 2: as we go forward, and one that we need to

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Speaker 2: engage in. But my comment around that, as well as

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Speaker 2: often the argument around that, is that lod of care

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Speaker 2: services per se in this country are not fully funded

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Speaker 2: or adequately funded, and there should be equal weight given

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Speaker 2: to two proper funded health care service and advice. And

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Speaker 2: that's part of what pluts around this as well.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, just look at some of the issues that were

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Speaker 1: raised when we first discussed all this. Now that it

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Speaker 1: has been in place for three years, have there been

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Speaker 1: any issues with coesition?

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Speaker 2: Look that Again, the reason they're doing a review like

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Speaker 2: that is to pick up on any of those type

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Speaker 2: of issues. But certainly, I certainly haven't come across any

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Speaker 2: concerns raised in the sector around that. So again I

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Speaker 2: go back to my original comment that the actors that

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Speaker 2: was put into place and the safeguards were put around those,

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Speaker 2: but for reasonably rigorous in terms of what was done,

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Speaker 2: seems to be working.

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Speaker 1: And has it had any effect on our suicide rates?

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Speaker 2: Look, I couldn't comment on those rates, Andrew, so I

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Speaker 2: wouldn't know. Now.

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Speaker 1: At the end of the day, the government will not

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Speaker 1: make changes to the act no matter what the review says. However,

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Speaker 1: then political parties can progress changes through members' bills, So

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Speaker 1: if there were going to be any changes to the legislation,

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Speaker 1: it might take years if at all.

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Speaker 2: That's the process that's in place. If that was to happen,

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Speaker 2: then it becomes a conscious folk generally in the Parliament

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Speaker 2: because of the nature of of this of euthanasia and

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Speaker 2: what actually happens the end of life, So it's a

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Speaker 2: be amotive area obviously, But yeah, that is the process

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Speaker 2: is in place, and that's what's been put in place

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Speaker 2: at this point.

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Speaker 1: So I guess you could say though, the good thing

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Speaker 1: is that the process is working quite well right now

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Speaker 1: and there isn't an urgent need to make a change,

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Speaker 1: because even if we wanted to make a change, we

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Speaker 1: couldn't do it urgently.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think that's probably a fair summation of the

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Speaker 2: situation that it does seem to have worked in the

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Speaker 2: way it was intended. There doesn't seem to be a

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Speaker 2: huge urgency to review or change anything, so we probably

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Speaker 2: are in a reasonable space at this point.

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Speaker 1: Brian Betted to Brian Betty, Cheer of General Practice and

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Speaker 1: New Zealand, I thank you for your time.

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