Anyone who claims assisted dying already happens in New Zealand is peddling fake news, a palliative care expert says.
A panel of specialists says the End of Life Bill going through Parliament is dangerous and the burden on doctors to assist a patient to die is too great.
Dr Selina Lupati is a palliative medicine specialist and says the risks in the Bill - or any legislation around assisted dying - are too great.
She says the Bill is asking doctors to make decisions that are irreversible, with less rigour than is applied to imprisoning someone in the justice system.
"Medicine is not an exact science - we make mistakes in making diagnosis, we make mistakes in prognostication."
She is part of a panel of those working in palliative care who say public debate has been dominated by euthanasia advocates - and glossed over obvious flaws in the proposed law.
Aged Concern reports 1500 cases of elder abuse and says 75 percent of alleged abusers are family members.
David Seymour, the MP behind the Bill, has received 30,000 submissions, and would institute rules including two doctors having to assess a patient seeking euthanasia.
The ACT leader has said assisted dying is already happening - a claim rejected by Hospice New Zealand's Professor Rod McLeod.
He's spent 30 years caring for people who are dying and says the answer is in good palliative care - helping people be less fearful about death.
Prof McLeod says most junior doctors deal with 40 dying patients in their first years of practice, yet spend only four days learning about end of life care in six years of study.
Newshub.
