A euthanasia specialist soon to visit Wanganui says Dutch doctors who can legally end their patients' lives do not misuse that ability.
Dr Rob Jonquiere is the communications director of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, and is touring New Zealand to calm fears about voluntary euthanasia. He was invited by New Zealand's Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and will be speaking at Wanganui's Grand Hotel at 2pm on March 1.
Dr Jonquiere worked as a family doctor in the Netherlands and was asked to help patients die before it was legal there. He did so. He worked on the legislation that enabled it in 2001, and hopes his tour will help the cause here.
In the Netherlands 10,000 people a year ask for help to end their lives. That help is given to 3000 to 4000, about 2 per cent of all deaths.
"The others are not accepted. The suffering is not bad or a burden, or the patient dies before the request can be done."
Every five years there's a survey and doctors have to report how many lives they have ended, and how. The survey captures 80 to 90 per cent of assisted deaths. In 30 years Dr Jonquiere has seen no sign of doctors abusing their ability to end life. He said abuses were more likely when assisted deaths had to be kept secret.
Knowing they could ask for help to die gave patients a sense of security. Often worry about increasing pain made their situations worse. Knowing they would not have to endure it relieved their anxiety, and they coped better.
"People can bear more suffering than they thought in the beginning."
There's quite a process before an assisted death can happen. First, the patient has to ask for it. Then there is lots of talking with the patient and their family.
"We have to make sure it's voluntary, and there's no hope for any better situation. Every doctor will seek to find another way to treat the suffering."
The process takes varying lengths of time - less if suffering is intense.
If no solution is found and the assisted death will happen, doctors have mixed feelings. On one hand, they are doing something usually outside their profession. On the other, the ability to end suffering is a gift they can give their patient. "It's never easy for a doctor to do it. My own experience is, if you feel you want to be responsible for the proper execution of the act, you must be sure that it will end in dying."
Doctors perform euthanasia by injecting patients with a substance that puts them into a deep coma. Then they are injected with a muscle relaxant that stops their heart. Doctors in these cases will prescribe an overdose, because they have to make sure it works.
Then there are assisted suicides - about one per cent of all assisted deaths. In that case the doctor watches as the patient drinks a strong barbiturate, then waits until it works. For a terminally ill person, death usually comes within 20 minutes. With a healthier person it can take hours, and if it's too slow the patient will be given an injection as well.