Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to commence my intervention by paying tribute to the many thousands of doctors nurses allied health professionals and volunteers up and down the country who dedicate their lives every day to the service of our ill infirm and elderly in aged residential care in palliative care and in hospice care many of whom will be listening to this debate overwhelmingly with a heavy heart but also I think some frustration at the lack of understanding of the work that they do every day. We've all shared stories of loved ones passing on. Almost all of us have not been involved in that in a professional capacity and yet many of us claim expertise in this area. My arthritis doesn't make me an expert in rheumatology breaking a leg on the rugby field doesn't make me similar to an orthopaedic surgeon and watching a loved one die does not make me an expert in end of life care. I think it behoves us to listen more carefully to what those professionals have said about what can and cannot be done. I'm minded to quote recently retired geriatrician Professor David Richmond who wrote about 18 months ago this: In more than 40 years of medical practice as a physician geriatrician and terminal care manager I cared for many dying people. My testimony is that I have never seen a person dying with unmanageable suffering." He went on to say: "We cannot judge the effectiveness of today's palliative care by comparing it with what was available even just 10 years ago." We've heard quite rightly actually that there is pain and there is suffering not only by the terminally ill person but by their loved ones but the issue is of "irremediable" pain and suffering. I will repeat the offer that I made to the sponsor of the bill in Timaru 18 months ago that I would support this bill if it were restricted to cover only those conditions that are resistant to effective palliative care. And of course we're not—we're talking about a much broader range of self-declared irremediable conditions. [Professor David Richmond's surname was originally spelt incorrectly; text corrected.]I actually want to remind the House that the sponsor of the bill has accused doctors of acting with murderous intent by using surveys that were fundamentally flawed in my view to suggest that 4.5 percent of them have ended the lives of their patients as some kind of nod and a wink to euthanasia right now. That is offensive to doctors. That survey was flawed. He sent it to me I examined it; it is wrong. And indeed if that were the case—and the issue is actually that it's very difficult to take one's life in fact; it's almost impossible to do so with terminal sedation. The research is very clear on that. But actually paradoxically the fear that that could happen actually means that people often receive less pain management than they need and suffer unnecessarily. The solution to this is not this bill. It is actually better education and more staff trained in understanding end of life care so that those wonderful men and women in our health profession can wrap that support of the family and of the terminally ill person around them. I want to just put on record once again my grave concern and indeed the sponsor's reassurances—although it's an unusual one—for the choice that was denied institutions to say no to allowing end of life choice in their institutions. The member in the committee of the whole House said "Nowhere in this bill is any institution required to do anything." I don't see where the logic is in being able to object conscientiously to something that an institution isn't required to do in the first place. He misunderstood what I was saying about Canada; I never said that institutions had been closed down but I did provide proof that there is coercive pressure being put on faith-based organisations in Canada to provide euthanasia. The member has said that will not happen; I hope he's right. I continue to oppose this bill and will continue to support the right of institutions to contentiously object."