Recent Additions to the VES Website
November 2008
71% of NZers support medically assisted dying.
VESNZ SURVEY SHOWS THAT THE MAJORITY OF NEW ZEALANDERS SUPPORT MEDICALLY ASSISTED DYING
This year the National Committee of VESNZ decided that we should obtain an up-to-date, independent measure of the level of support in New Zealand for the legalization of medically assisted dying. To this end we commissioned one of New Zealand’s most prominent market research companies, Colmar Brunton, to conduct surveys during 2008.
The results, based on the opinions of over 2,000 New Zealanders aged 15 years and over, showed that an overwhelming 71% of New Zealanders want the legal right to choose a medically assisted death if they, personally, have an illness or condition from which they have no hope of returning to an acceptable quality of life.
In the measures obtained in August and September of 2008, the question asked was: “In some countries, though not all, if you have an illness that results in your being unable to have an acceptable quality of life, you are legally allowed to get help from a doctor to help you to die. If you had an illness or condition which resulted in your having a quality of life that was totally unacceptable to you, would you like to have the legal right to choose a medically assisted death?”
Seventy-one per cent said YES.Area, age and gender were set to ensure a representative spread and data were post-weighted to reflect nationwide population statistics in terms of gender, age and household size.
In our pre-election communication with all political parties we were pleased to be able to use this figure as evidence of the strong support of NZ citizens for a change in the law to enable medically assisted dying.