XPost: nz.politics, sac.politics, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: none@gmail.com   
      
   New Zealanders have voted to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill   
   but voted down legalizing marijuana. The questions were put to the country   
   in separate referendums held on Oct. 17 in conjunction with the general   
   election that handed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a landslide victory for   
   another term.   
      
   The preliminary results from the referendums on two major social questions   
   reflect a potential significant shift in social attitudes in New Zealand.   
      
   With most votes counted, New Zealanders emphatically endorsed voluntary   
   euthanasia. Sixty-five percent said "yes" to the proposition on the right   
   to die, putting the country on track to become one of the few that permits   
   assisted suicide.   
      
   The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia, parts of Australia and   
   several states in the U.S. are among those that have legalized euthanasia.   
      
   Approval of the "End of Life Choice Bill" was the result of an emotional,   
   years-long campaign that featured ardently-held views on both sides. And   
   it had been anticipated. Public opinion surveys in the run-up to the   
   balloting showed wide support.   
      
   The measure is expected to come into effect November 2021, and would allow   
   terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the opportunity to   
   choose assisted dying, if approved by two doctors.   
      
   "Thousands of New Zealanders who might have suffered excruciating deaths   
   will have choice, dignity, control, and autonomy over their own bodies,   
   protected by the rule of law," said lawmaker David Seymour of the   
   libertarian ACT Party.   
      
   Matt Vickers, who carried on his late wife Lecretia Seales' fight to   
   legalize the right to die, called the result "a victory for compassion and   
   kindness." Seale was a lawyer diagnosed with a brain tumour and launched a   
   legal challenge to end her life. But the case, documented in the Vickers'   
   book Lecretia's Choice: A story of Love, Death, and the Law, was   
   unsuccessful, and she died of her illness.   
      
   Vickers told the BBC, "She didn't want to die. No one does. That's a   
   popular misconception. The problem was the choice to live had been taken   
   away," he said." Seales' story had been catalyst for the movement in New   
   Zealand for the right to assisted suicide.   
      
   Among opponents, Dr. John Kleinsman, an ethicist for the New Zealand   
   Catholic Bishops, said the vote endangered those who are vulnerable, and   
   that the existence of such a right-to-die option presented additional   
   pressure on families, and health care workers. Others expressed concerns   
   about people with chronic illnesses feeling obliged use resort to   
   euthanasia to avoid being a burden on their families.   
      
   The results announced Friday do not include some 480,000 votes, many   
   overseas ballots, and the final outcome will not be confirmed until Nov.   
   6. But with such strong support, the tabulation favoring assisted suicide   
   is not expected to change.   
      
   The proposal to legalize recreational marijuana was much closer. New   
   Zealanders narrowly rejected it by a margin of 53% to 46%.   
      
   Conservative lawmaker Nick Smith called it, "a victory for common sense."   
   But because overseas voters have tended to track more liberal, supporters   
   of the legalization of cannabis say there is still hope after their votes   
   are counted that the measure could be approved.   
      
   Proponents of legalizing marijuana were frustrated that Prime Minister   
   Ardern wouldn't reveal how she intended to vote ahead of the October   
   ballot. Many thought her endorsement would lift the fortunes of   
   recreational drug use.   
      
   Ardern waited until Friday to disclose that she had voted "yes" to both   
   propositions.   
      
   https://www.npr.org/2020/10/30/929709055/new-zealand-supports-the-right-   
   to-die-but-rejects-the-right-to-get-high   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)