Sir Michael Cullen’s cancer diagnosis has led him to join Yes for Compassion supporters calling for a yes vote in the End of Life Choice referendum on 17 October.

In February this year, the former Labour deputy Prime Minister received devastating news he had Stage IV small cell lung cancer with secondary cancer in the liver.

He says “I am one one those with cancer, in my case inoperable and incurable. Chemotherapy has knocked it back. But it will return and I will die earlier than I had been expecting, like so many with cancer.

“Daffodil Day is about all those of us with cancer. It is also about how we can reduce the incidence of this complex of different diseases which, together, kill many of us.”

Sir Michael Cullen says despite ‘excellent’ palliative care here in New Zealand he still has concerns about how he will die. He believes the End of Life Choice Act is a safe piece of legislation that offers dignity to those like himself with incurable cancer.

He says “Many of us with terminal illnesses think about what the last weeks or months may be like. Our health services talk us through this. Our good people in the hospice movement provide excellent end-of-life care for many. We are told our pain can be controlled to a tolerable level. This will suit many of us. But for many others, myself included, there is an overriding issue of control and dignity.

“I have carefully read the End of Life Choice Act. It provides safeguards against pressure coming on the dying person from others. Its scope is limited. It does not force any medical professional against their conscience. It respects the rights of those who find assisted euthanasia morally abhorrent. But it offers to people like me the chance of finishing the life I have enjoyed so much in a way consistent with my moral beliefs and my sense of the dignity of human life.

“It is not about what some rather too lightly dismiss as “being a burden”. I do not want my only choice being to die in a near-comatose state on morphine, which has been administered knowing it will shorten my life anyway.

“I do not want to lose control of my bodily functions so that my dignity has disappeared with the ebbing of my life. When I reach those last stages, if that is the prospect, I want the choice to be able to decide when the time is right to complete the circle of life.”

Sir Michael Cullen is a supporter of Yes for Compassion. The group enables New Zealanders to cast informed yes votes in the End of Life Choice referendum on 17 October.

http://yesforcompassion.org.nz/

Notes:

You can read a further statement of support from Sir Michael Cullen here: https://www.yesforcompassion.org.nz/stories/sir-michael-cullen/

Media can view two more stories from Yes for Compassion supporters Bobbie Carroll and Stuart Armstrong, both of whom have incurable cancer, here: https://www.yesforcompassion.org.nz/on-daffodil-day-sir-michael-cullen-joins-our-supporters-to-call-for-end-of-life-choice/

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