Loheni AgnesAGNES LOHENI (National): This week 1500 medical doctors stated that they wanted no part in assisted suicide; they are clear that euthanasia is not part of medical practice. These doctors take great umbrage at attempts to provide a cloak of medical legitimacy by forcing doctors to participate in this unethical practice.The views of these doctors have been ignored in the unseemly haste to clear the decks for this troublesome piece of legislation. The haste to pass this bill has seen sensible and needed amendments be not sufficiently addressed such as having no independent witness required at any stage of the process including death; no cool-down periods for those considering this course of action; no need to ensure mental competency at the time of their death; no safeguards against coercion. Doctors have said that it is virtually impossible to detect subtle emotional coercion.When cultural views are brought to bear such as those of New Zealand Pacific peoples in this country these have been dismissed by the sponsor David Seymour as skin-colour matters with the great Dr Martin Luther King's words quoted as some type of argument against cultural views. But Dr Martin Luther King spoke of the content of a person's character and the content of our Pacific Island peoples' communities' character has not been determined by our skin colour but by our firmly held cultural beliefs; beliefs underpinned by our culture of care that our elders should be honoured and revered in their twilight years and have family surround them and support them.This drives to the heart of what leads people to choose a path of suicide in their later years. It's not a fear of pain. Our tagata matutua [elderly] our kaumātua our elders are far more stoic than that. It is the fear of isolation or being a burden or being unwanted that is the overwhelming fear.So I am driven by compassion and a desire to place value on people's lives as they enter their twilight years. I like virtually every person in this House have witnessed the death of a loved one through illness. I have witnessed first-hand the pain that suicide causes family members. So this is not a competition to outdo each other with compassion to be asked Have you seen a person die of cancer?" as though that trumps our duty of care to the vulnerable in our society.So knowing that we are all compassionate people whether we are for or against euthanasia I turn to the duty of care we have as members of Parliament in this House today. Our duty of care is to ensure good legislation is passed. During the passage of this bill I and other members have recommended a number of amendments that would have strengthened this bill and for our efforts these have been rejected as time-wasting or filibustering. This is a serious change in our society's fabric; we are asking the State to sanction the death of people. I reject our attempts to bring rigour and care into this process as time-wasting. Time is not our enemy; time is our friend. Time is needed to ensure that this most serious legislation is properly considered where genuine attempts to bring rigour are not regarded as time-wasting but as efforts to bring some semblance of care into this legislation. As a result history will not smile favourably on us. Indeed when has history ever smiled on State-sanctioned killing? We are aghast at the idea of war. We have turned our back on the State-sanctioned killing of criminals murder is rightfully and justly condemned and we are troubled by our terrible suicide statistics. Yet now we are giving ourselves licence as the State to arrange the death of our citizens. How will history ever smile on this?With humility I ask my fellow members in this House to hold the line for the vulnerable in our community and vote No to this bill."