19 April 2024.
TVNZ,
Wellington.
Dear Sir,
I wish to lodge a formal complaint against TV 1 for the following items.
On Good Friday 29th March and Saturday 30th March 2024, the TV 1 news bulletins at 6pm included lead items campaigning for increased access to the killing, by euthanasia, of the most vulnerable members of our community through a proposed amendment of the End of Life Choice Act 2019, which is to be reviewed this year.
I believe that the items breached the standards of the Broadcast Standards Authority , accuracy, fairness and balance.
TVNZ is a state owned enterprise, which has a duty to uphold the common good of the community; It thus has a duty to uphold the sanctity of life and the inalienable right to life of every person from conception to natural death.
It is totally inappropriate for TVNZ to be advocating for the killing of the vulnerable and deplorable that it refused to be a voice for the vulnerable who seek life -affirming health care.
TVNZ has a duty to present the news without bias. The euthanasia items were not news but a campaign promoting the killing of the vulnerable in society, disguised as news.
God has commanded us in the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” It was an affront and an insult to God that this anti-life campaign should have been launched on Good Friday, one of the holiest days of the year when we commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ, who died that we might have eternal life.
It is appalling that TVNZ journalism appears to support the following anti-life amendments to the current EOLC law :-
That the legal requirement that the patient seeking euthanasia is expected to die of a terminal illness within 6 months, be repealed.
That doctors be permitted to raise the issue of euthanasia with patients, and encourage them to accept euthanasia by lethal injection.
That retirement villages and rest homes be required to allow eligible residents to receive a lethal injection and be euthanized in their facilities.
I believe that the items were biased because:-
There was no doctor interviewed who was opposed to the law allowing doctors to give their patients a lethal injection or assist in their suicide.
There are 33 hospices in New Zealand providing compassionate care and pain relief to the terminally ill. Only one person was interviewed from hospices and that person was from the Totara hospice, the only hospice that permitted doctors to kill their patients. Why was no person interviewed to speak on behalf of the 32 hospices that prohibited the killing of vulnerable patients or assisting in suicide?
There are 470 retirement villages in New Zealand.The vast majority of retirement villages in New Zealand prohibit doctors terminating the lives of their patients in their villages. Why was no spokesperson for the Retirement Villages Association invited to say why the killing of residents was widely prohibited in retirement villages?
I request that TVNZ refrain from promoting the killing of the vulnerable and become a voice for the voiceless, by exposing the evils of believing that there are some lives that are not worth living, that they are a burden on their families and society because of their terminal illness.
I believe that TVNZ should exercise its privileged position, as a major news source, to promote life- saving palliative care, which neither hastens nor postpones death, but provides compassionate care, effective pain relief and a dignified natural death.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life (N.Z.) Incorporated