Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Letters: Without a 'yes' vote, suffering will continue

Rotorua Daily Post
18 Dec, 2019 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

A reader asks: Who can best decide when I will die - if that would be my choice? Photo / Getty Images

A reader asks: Who can best decide when I will die - if that would be my choice? Photo / Getty Images

Here is a description of a common scene when someone is near death. I say this with the experience of a nurse.

Hypothetically I am eminently dying of a disease that is causing unrelieved pain. With a terminal illness, there is no hope of recovery.

Who can best decide when I will die — if that would be my choice?

Surely, myself. I fit the criteria of the End of Life Choice Act and when the people of NZ vote "yes" at the referendum (election 2020), I can die with medical intervention.

To suffer needlessly is one thing. Preventing others from relief is quite another thing.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Without "yes" at the referendum, this will continue to happen.

Quote Governor Phillip Murphy (New Jersey) when signing his State's Medical Aid In Dying legislation for the terminally ill Act. "While my faith may lead me to a particular decision for myself, as a public official, I cannot deny this alternative to those who may reach a different conclusion. It is a personal choice and this legislation best respects the freedom and humanity for all New Jersey residents."

Our Government has put out an easy-to-read summary of our legislation to help voters decide at the referendum: www.referendum.govt.nz. Here we have the facts, worded impartially to allow honest information.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It may help to remember that medically assisted dying is only for the dying.

Tess Nesdale
Tauranga

Discover more

Letters: Volcanoes dangerous but fascinating

11 Dec 11:25 AM

Letters: Rule-breakers saved lives on White Island

12 Dec 07:00 PM

Letters: Lessons not learnt from Pike River

13 Dec 06:00 PM

Letters: Debate around councillors' payrises

17 Dec 07:00 PM

Fairytale in New York by the Pogues has again been talked about, vilified, ridiculed and, inevitably I have been asked if I like it.

Yes, is the short answer, every Christmas I listen to it and I love it.

It must be the Irish in me that responds to the sentimentality, the loneliness, the feeling all exiles have, the loneliness not from lack of company but from the lack of those who went before, to me, it is Christmas and is probably why as commercial as it has become, Christmas will always be a big part of my life because it is part of my memories, the nostalgia that is written in the heart of exiles everywhere.

I can recall believing in Santa, my parents, wisely, kept the dream alive for the first four or five years of my life and I love them for it.

Live the dream, it is only once a year, but live it, as you get older you will thank yourself for that indulgence.

Merry Christmas! (Abridged)

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

live
Rotorua Daily Post

Up to 50 people evacuated from homes after wild weather, clean-up efforts begin

11 Jul 07:53 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Merry hell' in Mamaku: Village held 'to ransom' by hoons

11 Jul 06:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

Bay home crowd rallies behind netball's Magic

11 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Up to 50 people evacuated from homes after wild weather, clean-up efforts begin
live

Up to 50 people evacuated from homes after wild weather, clean-up efforts begin

11 Jul 07:53 PM

The North Island is expected to get off to a wet start this morning, with lingering rain.

'Merry hell' in Mamaku: Village held 'to ransom' by hoons

'Merry hell' in Mamaku: Village held 'to ransom' by hoons

11 Jul 06:00 PM
Bay home crowd rallies behind netball's Magic

Bay home crowd rallies behind netball's Magic

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Tearful hunter admits shooting and killing friend

Tearful hunter admits shooting and killing friend

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP