Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a great pleasure to rise in opposition to this bill. In this time that I have I would like to commend the speech that was given by the Hon Dr Nick Smith in relation to clause 8 and I'd like to sort of address subclause (2) of that clause which talks about the attending medical practitioners must"—in paragraph (h)—"do their [very] best to ensure that the person expresses their wish free from pressure from any other person by—(i) conferring with other health practitioners who are in regular contact with the person; and (ii) conferring with members of the person's family approved by the person".I am particularly interested in talking about that section but before I get to that I'd like to talk about what the member—the sponsor of this bill who is actually sitting in the chair made a comment before dinner break mentioning that I had in fact said that I represent all of Koreans. I don't think I ever actually said that during the first part of this bill. I don't think anyone in this House represents all of the people that they're talking about. What I did actually say was that I did do a poll and I talked to the Korean community and the majority of the view was their concern for this bill and I wish the member would actually quote me correctly when he speaks as if he is speaking on my behalf.I did also quote in the first part—and it's related to clause 8 which is about coercion. One of the examples that I actually gave in that part was about a person in the Mt Albert electorate who has a father who has dementia whose mother has actually had a very bad health situation and she has been stealing from her parents—her elderly parents. I mentioned about my fear should that person—that daughter was this particular family member who the doctors will be conferring with to get the approval. If the mother was in hospital having been diagnosed with cancer—which she had been—and if she had gone to the doctors with this particular daughter who drove her to the doctors and the doctors were looking at the mother and saying "Do you agree that this daughter can speak on your behalf?" the mother would never ever be able to say "No I do not."What happens if that mother is being abused like some of my learned colleagues have said at home—in their home? If the mother or the father had been abused there are plenty of examples of elder abuse in this country. I think it is Age Concern who said that approximately three-quarters of all such cases involve abuse in the family. Three-quarters of such cases also involve financial fraud and illegal control of the assets owned by the elderly parents. Often as one of my members earlier had said do these family members have you know certain intentions when they're speaking on their parents' behalf; when they said "No. My parent my grandmother wants to die."?I would like this particular medical practitioner to have more experience more involvement with the patient because I don't think they can ever be a judge when they're deciding when this patient wants to kill themselves that they did not have coercion. I know earlier David Seymour had said—I think in Part 1 he actually said—that there was never any proof of coercion in the history of euthanasia. Can I actually quote what about the disabled Canadian Roger Foley who was offered medically assisted death in place of assisted home care—he is now taking the Government of Canada to court. There was coercion. There is proof of coercion that is going through the courts and David Seymour knows this very well. For him to say that there's never been any coercion in the history of euthanasia—he is absolutely not telling the whole truth."