Euthanasia and PAS (physician assisted suicide) are just euphemisms for killing/murder — words that we are uncomfortable using. This has now been made legal in some Western countries.
Recently I was sitting next to a Maori man coming from Australia to see his grandfather one last time. He had been away 20 years but spoke of his grandfather with affection. He told me he was the eldest of many grandchildren, and he expected they would all be there.
We did not actually talk about euthanasia, but I got the feeling that tangata whenua would never consider anything like that for their loved ones. Perhaps all of us in Gisborne could learn some of their good values.
We often hear of the right to die with dignity. New Zealand’s palliative and hospice care are second to none in the world with dedicated doctors and nurses, and the medication available to keep patients comfortable is getting better all the time — so we do not need to resort to euthanasia or PAS. Dying is part of life, and to make sure people live and die with dignity we need to surround them with love. That way we will have peace of mind instead of guilty feelings or regrets.
New Zealand has led the world in many good ways. We have a Treaty to facilitate dialogue between the tangata whenua and us; we gave women the vote many years before any other country did; we introduced an eight-hour working day as early as 1840; we made our country nuclear free in 1987; we are environmentally conscious and environmentally active.