Dr. Laura Chapman:

I have been a doctor for 25 years and an assisted dying provider for two years. I will start with words from a family I helped:

Dad was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief, and enjoy life as much as he could, looking forward to the day of his passing ... we went through some harrowing experiences with Dad's attempts to take his own life, and pleading for one of us to suffocate him. He desperately wanted to end his suffering. This was the best thing for Dad and our family.

I did not plan to be an assisted dying provider and I was deeply concerned that I would feel like a bad doctor after the first patient I helped to die. To my surprise, I felt like a good doctor, as I had worked with my patient to achieve the death he desired, peaceful and at home, surrounded by his family. I know I have helped some people to avoid deaths no doctor would want for anyone and that even great palliative care has limited ability to help, such as choking to death on a tumour growing daily in their mouth, or suddenly bleeding to death from a cancer eroding into a major blood vessel. In New Zealand, the option of assisted dying gives patients great comfort, and provides people who choose assisted dying with a good death. There are areas of the legislation which need revision but overall, New Zealand has made a safe and patient-focused start to the provision of assisted dying with strong provisions for conscientious objection and the right to not be involved for all clinical staff.