National Party leader Bill English has come out in staunch opposition of the euthanasia bill during its first debate in parliament tonight.
Mr English said, "I’m sure we've all had the experience – I know I have – or know about the experience of witnessing the suffering, the fear, the anxiety of a dying person and those around them."
The former prime minister said personal experience with the deaths of loved ones must also be weighed up with parliament's role as lawmakers.
"Our role is not principally to alleviate suffering, our role is to ensure that our society has a set of laws that protect those who most need protection," he said.
Mr English went on to compare the euthanasia bill to a "cold, technical, bureaucratic process of death" which "induces the suicide of another person".
"We don’t want people encouraging a depressed, disabled young person that their life isn’t worth anything, and as lawmakers, the reason there is a blanket prohibition is because you are not always the best judge of the value of your life and the price that our community pays for enabling a doctor to take your life free of criminal scrutiny," he said.
ACT Party leader David Seymour, who spoke before Mr English, said "the current situation is an absurdity" where it's legal in New Zealand to refuse food and treatment in order to end the suffering brought on by a terminal illness, but it's illegal to choose the right to have an assisted death by a health professional.
"It's wrong in 2017 that under the laws made by this House we tolerate a status quo where people suffer needlessly," he told the House.
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