Petition to expand End of Life Choice Act accepted at Parliament

The ACT Party plans to introduce a member's bill to expand eligibility for the End of Life Choice Act after accepting a petition at Parliament.

The petition, presented by Jackie Foster from Social Justice Aotearoa, calls on the words 'within six months' to be removed from the legislation, so people suffering from a degenerative disease that will ultimately end their life are also eligible for assisted dying.

The petition contained 3353 signatures.

Foster said she had personally voted against the legislation at the 2020 referendum, but had changed her mind after seeing her friend's experience with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

"I've seen it first-hand now, and it's just horrific. I think everybody needs to have a choice and be able to make that choice themselves," she said.

The petition was accepted by ACT's health spokesperson Todd Stephenson, who said he would prepare a member's bill to amend the End of Life Choice Act to remove the six month limit.

The 'architects' of the legislation, ACT leader David Seymour and deputy Brooke van Velden also attended the handover of the petition.

Seymour admitted he was frustrated the law that exists was not the law he had intended, and that some were being "shortchanged" by it.

"I never supported it. I never wanted it. I didn't introduce it that way. I had to compromise, because if I didn't get the votes, there'd be no law at all," he said.

Seymour said if Foster could change her mind, then maybe others who had opposed the bill could, too.

ACT's coalition agreement with National stated the parties would work together on the terms of reference for a review of the Act, but any potential future changes would need to be progressed by way of a member's bill, recognising it was a conscience issue.

"The statutory review is being the Ministry of Health right now. I believe, without pre-empting what it will say, that it will give a lot of weight to making change," Seymour said.

"All of the data, all of the evidence, all of the experience to date has shown the concerns last time around were overblown, and the frustration of people who can't access assisted dying due to the six month restriction was actually understated at the time the law was made."

Stephenson said he was not looking to include a referendum clause in his member's bill.

"I don't think we need to go to another full referendum. I think it was quite amazing that 65 percent of New Zealanders supported it last time, I think we could just go through a simpler process this time and make this change," he said.