Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): Thank you Mr Speaker. I have spoken at no previous reading of this bill and today I speak. If this bill passes I am the only person in this House who will be permissioned to euthanise New Zealanders. This weighs heavily on me. In this contribution I will speak with three voices: the voice of the medical practitioner the voice of a Māori and the voice of a New Zealand citizen.To the first as a doctor I proudly add my name to 1500 medical practitioners and ask the House not to pass this bill. I will not traverse the arguments of slippery slope and the signals it sends to our at-risk disabled but instead I ask us to reflect on the last time we accompanied a sick older person to a doctor—maybe a mother a friend a father aunt or elderly person. In that moment of need and relationship of trust we knew that the doctor was working as hard as they can to return our loved one to the very best physical mental and social condition possible. There are no other options. There is no other agenda. There is no other step. The backstop that commands the doctor is to return that person to the best condition possible. If this bill passes another option is created. There is a next step—the backstop changes. It changes to one where euthanasia may be a next step and in doing so it will change the very fabric of the doctor-patient relationship. I don't want an option of anything other than the very best care I can provide. If this bill passes I cannot imagine the spectre of euthanasia—ever-present looming over every single consultation there but not there present but unspoken until it is dared to be given light. This bill dims the privilege of care.I turn then to my second voice and draw on what it means for me to be Māori and in that context this bill gives me grave foreboding. I understand some concepts of Te Ao Māori—where we came from why we're here where we are going—but my sense is that we reach here beyond where we are meant to reach. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. But there are others in this House who I've communicated with in the past 24 hours who are more knowledgeable in matters of this more knowledgable in tikanga Māori than I and so I pose the question to them. Taku tungāne Peeni Henare I value your opinion. It's not that many years past when you and your young family trusted me with my advice. Do you trust me now? Do you trust the very best summary I can make of the matter in front of us? I ask you to put all of this aside and tell me: what does your Māori heart say on this matter? Aku tungāne and tuahine Willie Jackson and Nanaia Mahuta I value your opinion. You both walk closer to Te Ao Māori than I do and so ask you also: what does your Māori heart say? This Māori heart says no.In my third and final voice I ask the House to consider this: the bill in front of us offers euthanasia to those with serious conditions who are likely to live less than six months. What important human endeavours would be absent from this world if great composers and artists with terminal conditions had been euthanised before their final works were completed? I will name three. Franz Schubert was ill for many months before his death in 1828 with physician Ernst Rinna confirming that he was ill beyond cure and likely to die soon." He was eligible for euthanasia and yet on that long last walk in the last months of his life he wrote three important piano sonatas in C minor A major and B flat. Under euthanasia the brightness would be gone from the world.In 1827 Ludwig Beethoven was dying with cirrhosis of the liver. He was eligible for euthanasia and yet in his final months he completed some of his most admired work including the substitute final movement of the String Quartet No. 13. Under euthanasia this brightness would be gone from the world. Under euthanasia this brightness would be gone from the world.Finally Johann Bach was blind and in his final months he had suffered a stroke. He was eligible for euthanasia. Yet in those final months he completed the hymn "Before Thy Throne I Now Appear" the first and only piece of music in which he inserted a melody from the letters of his surname Bach in German notation—B flat A C B natural. Under euthanasia this brightness would be gone from the world.I will conclude this contribution then with the words from that last piece by Bach."Soul body honour house and friendTo Thy protection I commend.Beseeching Thine almighty graceTo aid me till I've run my race;"It is our privilege to aid but not to end the race. Thank you."