Euthanasia meeting In Whangarei

"The contentious issue of euthanasia will be under the spotlight in Whangarei next month with "death with dignity" group End-of-Life Choice holding a public meeting in the city....But Steve Jaunay from the Whangarei branch of Voice for Life said euthanasia would be legalising assisted suicide and would have many dangerous unintended consequences.

"For example, one of our members told me that he was talking to a very experienced family lawyer who said 'you have no idea of the pressure we lawyers come under from family members who want their elderly mum or dad out of the way. They see them as eating up their inheritance money'," Mr Jaunay said."Elder abuse is a real problem and allowing assisted suicide would place them at great risk from unscrupulous family members. Yvonne Shaw can claim that there will be strong safeguards against any potential abuse, but I go with the former law lecturer at Victoria University who told a conference on euthanasia, that [there] is no way any legal safeguards will work in practice."Read the full Northern Advocate article here