Assisted dying laws are being reviewed in New Zealand. Former watchdogs and the Law Society have recommended that oversight of assisted deaths should be strengthened. Photo / 123rf
Assisted dying laws are being reviewed in New Zealand. Former watchdogs and the Law Society have recommended that oversight of assisted deaths should be strengthened. Photo / 123rf
A committee that oversees assisted deaths did not function between November and June because it was short of members.
A backlog of 200 death reports built up and a new committee is now working double-time to catch up.
It comes as former members of the committee raise concerns about the lack of oversight for the Assisted Dying Service.
At least 200 assisted dying reports in New Zealand were not reviewed because an oversight committee was out of action for more than six months.
Two members of the three-person End of Life Review Committee were not reappointed when their terms ended last October.
Dr Jane Greville andDr Dana Wensley, who have raised concerns about the level of oversight of assisted deaths, said their departures led to an extended period when doctors’ reports on assisted deaths were not being considered.
The Ministry of Health confirmed to the Herald that after their terms ended, the review committee was unable to meet between November and July. The committee needed three members for a quorum and was waiting for new members to be appointed.
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora figures show at least 230 people had an assisted death during this period.
The review committee is the main form of oversight for the Assisted Dying Service.
After an assisted death takes place, the attending clinician provides a Death Report to the ministry.
Each report is checked by the Assisted Dying Registrar and the Assisted Dying Secretariat, whose roles are primarily administrative. The reports are then passed to the review committee, which checks they are compliant with the law and flags any concerns with the registrar.
A ministry spokesperson said the law did not specify that Death Reports had to be reviewed by the committee within a particular time, or that every Death Report must be examined.
“Therefore, while the committee was unable to meet, the reports were accumulated in the system and are being progressively submitted to the committee for their review,” the spokesperson said. “The committee is intending to inspect all Death Reports generated under the act.”
The committee has now been restored to three members and began meeting again in August. They meet twice monthly, rather than once, to tackle the backlog of reports.
One of the inaugural committee members, Bay of Plenty chief nursing officer Brenda Close, has been reappointed for another term. She has been joined by ethics expert Dr Elizabeth Fenton and GP Dr Danielle Heron, who specialises in palliative care.
The Herald revealed last week that Greville, a palliative care physician, and Wensley, an ethics expert, had complained to the ministry and successive health ministers about the level of oversight of assisted deaths.
They said while they had no evidence of wrongdoing, the Death Reports contained so little detail that they would not have been able to detect if someone had died wrongly.
The two former committee members said when they tried to raise specific concerns, they were told by the ministry it was not within their responsibilities, which were set out in the law.
Those concerns included a disproportionately high rate of assisted deaths in rural areas, and a case in which a patient with suspected frontal dementia who did not speak English was approved for assisted dying without an interpreter being present for their assessment.
While the former committee members felt the law was generally working well, they said the oversight process needed to be strengthened.
The Law Society agreed with their concerns. In a submission to an ongoing review of the law, society vice-president Taryn Gudmanz said to provide proper oversight the committee needed access to sufficient levels of detail to undertake its role, “which may be broader than the requirements set out in [the legislation]”.
She said the ministry should also consider whether the reports were detailed enough to assist with research on assisted dying.
“Research is necessary to allow for the evaluation of how the law is working in practice, for transparency and to guide improvements in practice. In particular, data is required to properly assess whether access is equitable, who is choosing to make use of the law, whether providers are well informed and whether the safeguards are working as intended.”
Act MP Todd Stephenson (middle) has drafted a law change that would remove one of the barriers to getting an assisted death.
If the ministry recommends changes following the review, the coalition Government has made an agreement that any reform will be progressed in a private member’s bill.
Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers health issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics and social issues. He has covered assisted dying issues since the End of Life Choice Act was first drafted.
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