Comments on: Voices raised against Seymour bill https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2017/07/05/voices-raised-seymour-bill/ The New Zealand National Catholic Newspaper Fri, 02 Feb 2018 02:48:16 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5 By: Dr John Kleinsman https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2017/07/05/voices-raised-seymour-bill/#comment-17800 Thu, 06 Jul 2017 23:07:53 +0000 https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/?p=15409#comment-17800 The above article focuses on the numbers of unique submissions sent to the Health Select Committee in response to the Voluntary Euthanasia Society Petition presented to the NZ Parliament in 2015. The Care Alliance reviewed every one of the 21,277 submissions and came up with an independently audited figure of 77.1% opposed and 19.5% in favour. See http://carealliance.org.nz/health-select-committee-77-of-submissions-oppose-euthanasia/

It is true that single question polls have over the years consistently shown that the NZ public support euthanasia in numbers ranging between 65% and 80%. However there are other polls that show people are often unclear about precisely what is being asked and other “progressive” polls which show that people who are initially in favour change their minds in significant numbers when presented with further information about the risks. See for example: http://www.carenotkilling.org.uk/public-opinion/assisted-dying-public-opinion/ .

]]> By: Graham Tate https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2017/07/05/voices-raised-seymour-bill/#comment-17793 Thu, 06 Jul 2017 07:49:11 +0000 https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/?p=15409#comment-17793 I would much appreciate it if Dr Kleinsman could provide a reference which cites an independent, statistically sound, recent, published survey which shows only 20% of NZ respondents support voluntary euthanasia. My understanding is that independently conducted survey results show completely the opposite of Dr Kleinsman’s claims.
Making extravagant claims without necessary backup should be of great concern to thinking readers.

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