LECRETIA SEALES AND AID IN DYING IN NEW ZEALAND

The application by Lecretia Seales, in relation to the lawfulness of physician aid in dying in New Zealand, was heard by Collins J, an experienced medical jurisprudentialist. It raised issues re-ignited by the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Carter v Canada and the legislative change in California. Is a continued prohibition in Australasia and the United Kingdom against physician aid in dying causing patients to be subjected to cruel, inhumane and undignified deaths or, in fact, is a legislative change unnecessary given the level of care that patients can receive and the peaceful and harmonious deaths that we often hear about in hospice and other settings. A range of arguments, some traditional and some very contemporary, were canvassed in the case of Lecretia Seales and Collins J considered each of them, commenting in detail both on points of law and matters of ethical substance. A study of his judgment therefore makes fascinating reading for those interested in end-of-life decisions and the way they are dealt with in different developed world jurisdictions, and in particular, how such ethical matters may be considered from the point of view of indigenous and marginalised cultures.