Professor Mary Donnelly:

We do not know what numbers would choose to use this. The numbers in New Zealand have been small so far. I have a memory of 66 but I cannot stand over that. The first point to note is that medicine has changed profoundly and the way life ends has changed profoundly. We talk about culture shifts but technology has changed dying profoundly. It is a very different kind of experience than it was in the days when pneumonia was considered the old man's friend and when people died in a much more technologically unsophisticated world which was in many ways bad but which also had a certain easing of passing. We live in a different world. Culture shifts are to some extent inevitable. There are many reasons people feel a burden and our job as a society and members' jobs as legislators, is to minimise people feeling themselves to be a burden and to maximise what is available to maximise their lives. Absolutely, these are concerns and they are real concerns but they are not necessarily addressed in the context of a little item of legislation on assisted dying. They are big; they are societal concerns. They are how we respect individuals whether they have disabilities or whether they are dying. They are incredibly important questions. Assisted dying is just one part of a much bigger question and much bigger picture.