In a 69-51 vote, New Zealand's parliament has voted to pass the so-called "End of Life Choice Bill," which would legalize both euthanasia and assisted suicide for people over the age of 18 who suffer from terminal illnesses that have the potential to end their lives within six months.
The controversial legislation recently passed its third and final reading in the New Zealand House, and will now have to be voted on by referendum in New Zealand's upcoming 2020 General Election. In other words, the general New Zealand public will be the ultimate deciding factor as to whether or not the End of Life Choice Bill officially becomes law.
Under normal circumstances, when a bill passes its third reading by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General would sign it into law through a process known as Royal Assent. But an amendment was added to the End of Life Choice Bill requiring it to go up for a final referendum vote, which is its next step.
The only problem is that most New Zealanders don't understand what the bill is about, and most of them mistakenly believe that it's more innocuous than it sounds based on its name.
According to reports, nearly three in four New Zealanders think the End of Life Choice Bill is about giving people the opportunity to simply turn off life support machines for the terminally ill. Some 70 percent think that refusal to be resuscitated will also be legalized.
Sixty-two percent of voters believe that the bill will allow for sick people to simply receive the amount of medicine they require in order to be pain free. Seventy-five percent also think that euthanasia or assisted suicide will only be legal when all other treatments to control pain have been tried and failed.
In truth, the End of Life Choice Bill would make it "possible for a person to receive a diagnosis of terminal illness on a Wednesday, gain the necessary approvals under the Bill that same day and be dead before the weekend," these being the exact words stated by Member of Parliament (MP) Chris Penk in his opposition speech to the bill before Parliament.
"It is expected that the person is in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability and that they 'experience unbearable suffering that cannot be relieved in a manner that the person considers tolerable,'" writes Michelle Kaufman for Life Site News. "People with mental illness, a disability or advanced age are not excluded from being approved, although these reasons standing alone are insufficient."
"A minimum period of 48 hours is required to pass between the medical or nurse practitioner writing a prescription and the administering of the lethal dose of drugs," Kaufman adds.
More than 90 percent of New Zealanders are opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide
Penk further worries that many New Zealanders will vote on the bill simply because of what its name implies, without ever actually reading the details. In the end, the bill could end up passing due to deception, which is somewhat ironic seeing as how New Zealand's parliament decided to ban guns in order to save lives following the mass shooting that allegedly took place there back in the spring.
Somehow, it's perfectly fine to allow New Zealanders to take their own lives if they feel as though they're too sick to live. But to allow New Zealanders the opportunity to protect themselves in self-defense using firearms is now off-limits because guns kill people, according to liberals.
The good news is that, of the more than 39,000 people who've already submitted public comments about the bill, upwards of 90 percent of them have expressed opposition to it – so perhaps more people are reading the bill's contents than previous opinion polls contend.
For more related news about how leftist governments only pretend to care about human lives when the opportunity to ban guns is at play, be sure to check out Tyranny.news.
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