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TVNZ 1 campaigns for extending killing of vulnerable!

Updated: Apr 16



Media Release 3 April 2024


Right to Life challenges TVNZ for initiating a campaign to empower doctors to increase the number of vulnerable patients who would be eligible to be given a lethal injection or assisted in suicide.


On Good Friday 29th March and Saturday 30th March 2024, the TVNZ 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.


Right to Life believes that the End of Life Choice Act should be repealed, not amended or extended.


The community should be aware that David Seymour M.P., the leader of ACT, was the principal architect of the End of Life Choice Act 2019. It was the dedicated lobbying of ACT Deputy leader Brooke van der Velden which ensured that this anti-life legislation was passed by Parliament.


Right to Life believes that David Seymour, who is an agnostic secular humanist, will be surreptitiously driving this review to ensure that more vulnerable patients are eligible to be killed by the state. It was to be expected that he was not available for interview by TVNZ for the launch of its euthanasia campaign.


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. May God forgive TVNZ for they know not what they do.

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.

Right to Life requests 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.


Right to Life believes 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

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