It has been five years since the End of Life Choice Act came into force in New Zealand. On 7 November 2021, it became legal for eligible patients to have their lives deliberately ended by a medical practitioner or to be assisted in taking their own lives.
The law was passed in the name of choice, autonomy and compassion — founded on the misguided belief that people have a right to choose when and how they die. However, no one has the right to deliberately end their own life.
The passing of this law, and the deaths that have followed, represent a deep tragedy for the individuals whose lives have been ended and for the families and friends left behind. It is also a devastating development for the medical profession, compromising its commitment to healing and caring for patients by permitting practitioners to deliberately end their lives.
The impact reaches even further. Society itself is diminished when those who are most vulnerable are abandoned in their hour of need. Anyone who is seriously ill, suffering or approaching the end of life is vulnerable.
The Statistics
According to the Ministry of Health’s Registrar reports and the latest quarterly figures published by Health New Zealand, at least 1,820 people have died through euthanasia or assisted suicide since the law came into force. That is about 9 people per week.
The Registrar’s five annual reports [2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026] record a cumulative total of 1,696 deaths to 31 March 2026. A further 124 deaths were recorded between 1 April and 30 June 2026.
Of the 1,696 deaths recorded to the end of March, 1,590 were the result of euthanasia, where a medical practitioner administered the lethal drugs. Just 106 were assisted suicides, where the person administered the drugs themselves.
Year after year, the number of people requesting euthanasia and assisted suicide has increased, sometimes modestly and at other times dramatically. The number of assisted deaths has also risen, from 328 in the first full reporting year to 486 in the year ending 31 March 2026.
These deaths are occurring not only in private homes but also in hospitals, aged-care facilities and hospices. There have also been reports of assisted deaths taking place in funeral homes.
A Lucrative Practice
The provision of euthanasia and assisted suicide can also be financially lucrative for medical and nurse practitioners and psychiatrists who choose to participate.
Just how much money some practitioners receive was revealed in an Official Information Act response obtained by Right to Life New Zealand in August this year.
According to the information provided by Health New Zealand, the ten practitioners who received the highest payments for assisted dying services were paid a combined $907,764.22 in just one year, excluding travel costs.
These ten practitioners were involved in 196 of the 486 assisted deaths recorded between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 which is more than 40 per cent of all assisted deaths that year.
The figures raise serious questions about the financial incentives associated with providing euthanasia and assisted suicide, particularly when the role of medicine should be to care for patients, not deliberately bring about their deaths.
The Push to Expand Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Calls to expand the End of Life Choice Act began almost immediately after it received Royal assent.
In August 2025, ACT MP Todd Stephenson re-lodged his End of Life Choice Amendment Bill, proposing significant changes to the existing legislation.
The Bill incorporated all 25 recommendations made in the Ministry of Health’s 2024 review of the Act. Among these were proposals to:
- Allow doctors and other health practitioners to raise euthanasia and assisted suicide as part of discussions about treatment and end-of-life care. Currently, the patient must initiate the conversation.
- Require healthcare facilities, including hospitals, hospices and aged-care facilities, to provide reasonable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide, even where the organisation itself opposes the practice.
- Change conscientious objection provisions, including requiring practitioners to provide information about how to access it and facilitate the transfer of relevant medical records.
- Expand the role of nurse practitioners in assessing patients and ending the lives of patients.
In addition, Stephenson’s Bill proposed removing the requirement that a person must have a terminal illness likely to end their life within six months. Instead, a person would need to have an advanced, progressive condition expected to cause death.
Another significant proposal was the introduction of a limited waiver of final consent. This would allow euthanasia or assisted suicide to proceed in certain circumstances where a person had previously been assessed as eligible but subsequently lost the capacity to make an informed decision.
The waiver raises significant concerns about proceeding when the person can no longer confirm their wishes or give consent at the time.
The Bill lapsed when Parliament was dissolved on 1 October ahead of the General Election. However, ACT has already indicated its intention to continue pursuing changes to the legislation in the new parliamentary term.
Where To From Here?
Although the End of Life Choice Act is built on the premise that individuals have the right to determine when and how they die, this belief is contrary to both the natural law — the law written on the hearts of all people — and the teaching of the Catholic Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church beautifully expresses why our lives are a gift and ought to be cherished:
“Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. WE are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honour and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.” §2280
The End of Life Choice Act, and the lives prematurely ended under it, represent a disturbing tragedy for New Zealand.
In just five years, more than 1,800 people have died through euthanasia or assisted suicide. With further expansion of the law on the horizon, we must renew our efforts to oppose this unethical practice, expose the harm it causes, and advocate for care that is truly compassionate and respects the inherent dignity of every human person.
Above all, we must work to restore a culture in which every human life is recognised as a gift, where those who are suffering are accompanied with love, and where the sick, elderly, disabled and dying are never made to feel that their lives are no longer worth living.
True compassion does not abandon those who suffer. It calls us to love and care for them, right to the very end.
Note: New Zealand governmental agencies refer to euthanasia and assisted suicide as “assisted dying.” This is a euphemism – words that sanitise the truth. True assisted dying cares for a person as the near the end of life and prepares them spiritually to meet God at the time appointed by Him.