The Yes vote in the End of Life Choice referendum brings a successful conclusion to a 42-year campaign to let terminally ill New Zealanders die peacefully at a time they choose.

“At long last, the people’s wishes have been granted,” said Dr Mary Panko, President of the End-of-Life Choice Society, noting that opinion polls over the last 20 years have consistently shown two-thirds of voters wanted a law change.

“We welcome the decision to join more than 200 million people around the world with enlightened laws allowing dying people to get medical assistance to end their suffering,” she said. “New Zealanders have voted for compassion and the individual’s right of choice.”

The popular movement began in October 1978 after British end-of-life choice pioneer Derek Humphry visited New Zealand to launch a book in which he admitted helping his cancer-stricken wife to end her life.

The original Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand was re-named the End-of-Life Choice Society after a members’ vote in 2017.

Dying New Zealanders will not be able to ask their doctors for an assessment for medically-assisted dying until November next year after a 12-month period for protocols, training and regulations to be bedded-in.

History: It’s been 25 years since MP Michael Laws’ “Death with Dignity” Private Member’s Bill was defeated 61-29 votes, with many abstentions. In 2003, Peter Brown’s Private Member’s Bill was beaten 60-58, with one abstention at its first reading.

Lawyer Lecretia Seales raised the profile of the issue, dying in June 2015 on the day her claim for medically assisted dying was rejected by a High Court judge. Former Labour MP Maryan Street organised a successful petition in 2016 and ACT leader David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was drawn from the members’ bills ballot in June 2017, finally passing in Parliament by 69-51 votes on November 13 2019.

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