End of Life Choice Act in operation – a review
The New Zealand Herald published a good article reviewing the operation of the End of Life Choice Act 2019, which is well into its third year of operation. The article details some cases and how they have been working – or not – for the people who wanted to have an assisted death.
“The End of Life Choice Society, an advocacy group which engages frequently with the ministry, said the clause excluded a large number of patients, especially those with neurogenerative diseases like motor neurone disease (MND) or Huntington’s disease. It was more difficult to predict when people with these conditions would die because they did not decline in a linear way.
The society’s president, Ann David, said the law was working well - but for a narrow group of people, mainly cancer patients.”
There have been 775 assisted deaths in approximately two and a half years. In September 2020we forecast the number of expected assisted deaths based on a similar law passed in Canada. That analysis suggested there would be around 238 assisted deaths per annum, and our current rate is about 300. Although approximately one third higher than expected, there remain many deaths which were requested which have been declined due to the uncertainty of meeting one of the requirements: that death is likely within six months. The case studies presented in the article are worth considering. The issues with estimating death are informative because we also consider these when assessing terminal illness claims, although with a longer time period based on most policy terms.