End-of-Life Choice NZ

Supporting Medically Assisted Dying In Aotearoa

The End-of-Life Choice Society of New Zealand Inc. recognises the "right to die" as allowing mentally competent adults with a terminal illness or irreversible condition that makes their life unbearable, to have the right to lawfully choose how and when to die and to have medical assistance to accomplish that.

Medically assisted dying services became available in New Zealand on 7 November 2021, rewarding decades of campaigning by the End-of-Life Choice Society.

The law does not allow doctors to suggest or recommend assisted dying to their patients. A patient must initiate the conversation by explicitly asking their doctor to help them with an assisted death. For further information and help with this please see our video here.

If your doctor is a conscientious objector or refuses to discuss assisted dying with you, get help directly from the Ministry of Health using either of the following contact details:

Phone: 0800 223 852 or Email: AssistedDying@health.govt.nz

The Latest News

Assisted Dying Is Now Legal In Australia's Northern Territory.

Australia's Northern Territory Parliament has passed a voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation. This means that VAD is now legal throughout the country. The end-of-life prognosis is for no later than 12 months but an attempt to remove the so-called "gag clause" was defeated.

Assisted Dying is now legal in France.

France's Constitutional Council has confirmed the previously passed parliamentary law which will allow assisted dying for French citizen's who are “suffering from an incurable, life-threatening illness in an advanced or terminal phase” and is causing “constant physical or psychological suffering that is untreatable or unbearable”.

Assisted Dying is now legal in New York State.

In August New York State legalised medical aid in dying for those who meet a strict set of requirements, including having no more than six months to live. This follows a decade-long battle.

Rick Weldon spent almost three months trying to die.

Rick's medical situation meant he was excluded from New Zealand's current assisted dying law. He stopped eating and drinking and took 86 days to die.

Part One

Part Two

Tōtara Hospice opens new assisted dying support suite.

Tōtara Hospice provides a wide range of specialist palliative care services to people across south and south-east Auckland who are living with life limiting illnesses. It has recently opened its Rangimārie Suite ... a dedicated space for people who wish to access a fully integrated voluntary assisted dying services under New Zealand’s End of Life Choice Act 2019.