Mr. David Seymour:

First, I thank the committee for hearing from us down here in New Zealand. I hope we can be of some help to the committee's deliberations as it considers a question that New Zealand has considered and resolved in the past five years. I understand that I have been asked to speak because I was the Member of Parliament in New Zealand responsible for the End of Life Choice Act 2019, which made assisted dying legal in New Zealand with effect from November 2021.

It was a five-year project from when I first submitted the Bill to our Members’ ballot until it was selected for debate, passed by Parliament, and confirmed by a referendum of all electors in New Zealand. As a result, I lived this debate as a major commitment of my life for several years. With me is Ms Brooke van Velden, now also a Member of Parliament and a Minister of the New Zealand Government. At that time, she worked in my office and was instrumental in getting the Bill passed.

To quickly summarise the New Zealand law, it allows a person eligible for assisted dying to choose the timing of their death. They can do that either by self-administration, or administration by a medical practitioner. A person eligible for assisted dying is defined as someone who is over 18; a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident; in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability; has a terminal illness likely to end his or her life within six months; is competent to make an informed decision; and judges that there are no other acceptable ways to alleviate his or her suffering.

These conditions are independently judged by two medical practitioners, the second of which is randomly assigned by the Ministry of Health. The law serves as a narrow exemption from a number of provisions in the Crimes Act, that would otherwise see the health practitioners involved liable for aiding and abetting suicide in the case of other clients.

How is it going? Approximately 30,000 people die in New Zealand each year. I imagine, based on population size, that the number is similar in Ireland. In the year to March 2023, the first reporting year for which there is full data, 807 people, around 2.5 % of all who died, applied for assisted dying. Of those, 328 had an assisted death, 111 remained eligible and the remaining 368 had been found ineligible or withdrawn their application. Some 202 died during the process. A total of 122 medical practitioners have registered as either an attending medical practitioner - the first doctor - or an independent medical practitioner - the second doctor. There are also 13 psychiatrists and 13 nurse practitioners who can play a role. In effect, this means there are available staff in most parts of the country. Although I note recent media coverage of 16 complaints about the assisted dying service in the past year, they overwhelmingly related to a lack of availability rather than any kind of malfunction or injustice in the application of the policy. This is a popular policy and complaints come from a lack of availability.

Finally I will make some political observations. I have summarised the law and how it has worked, but I would also like to make some observations that fellow politicians on the panel may recognise. Supporting this legislation will not hurt them politically. Of those who supported my Bill in 2019, 71% were re-elected in 2020. Of those who opposed my Bill, 57% were re-elected. My party rose by 900% from one MP to ten MPs. That may be because, when the issue was put to the public, 65% voted yes. This was in the face of an expensive and disingenuous scare campaign during the referendum which, based on our polling, probably dropped the support from approximately 70% to 65%.

It is difficult to change people’s minds because people know what they have seen in their lives. Too many people in New Zealand, and I suspect in Ireland, have seen bad deaths in their lives. They want choice and control for themselves if and when their time comes and that sentiment is deeply personal and embedded in people's psyche. Nonetheless, members will hear enormous amounts of misinformation about assisted dying in other countries. Generally, the more distant the country the more misinformation will be heard about it from opponents. In New Zealand, we heard the most misinformation about the Netherlands, a country as far away from Zealand as you can physically get, with a different language from ours so it was easy for opponents to spread misinformation about what might be happening in the Netherlands. I am taking the time to submit today, while forming a new Government this week, because I do not want Ireland to be misinformed about the New Zealand story in the same way some people tried to misinform us about other countries during our debate. I will be happy to contradict anything the committee may be about to hear or take any questions it may have.

The opponents, one of whom I understand the committee will hear from today, ran a campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt against my Bill. I am pleased to say that in the past two or three years, since the people spoke in the referendum and policy has begun to function well for those who want control and choice, we have not heard from them. They cannot be found anywhere in New Zealand these days, nor can their spurious arguments. However, I understand that, having been discredited by hard reality in New Zealand, some of them have now slunk around the world to submit to this committee. I cannot fathom what motivates them, but their behaviour is tragic and they should be ignored. The committee should allow those in Ireland who want choice and control about how and when they go to exercise their bodily autonomy under the rule of law.

I thank the committee for listening to my submission. I look forward to members' questions.