Law & Government
About Law & Government
Our representatives in Parliament and their advisors have the power to affect thousands, even millions, of lives. From the constitutional framework that empowers and limits government, to issues of law and policy that touch on deeper issues like the value and inviolability of human life, we continue an active engagement and interest in a range of policy and legal issues.
Most Recent Activity
The limits of our care
While reading last week’s NZ Herald series “Cancer – The cost of a life,” I wondered what the introduction of…
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Euthanasia Facts: Critique 3.1
By Jane Silloway Smith
Critique 3.1: 40% of those in Oregon who access assisted suicide do so out of a worry that they are…
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Euthanasia Facts: Critique 2
By Jane Silloway Smith
Critique 2: There has been a 656% increase in the number of assisted suicide deaths in Oregon since 1998 The…
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Euthanasia Facts: Critique 3.2
By Jane Silloway Smith
Critique 3.2: 40% of those in Oregon who access assisted suicide do so out of a worry that they are…
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Euthanasia Facts: Critique 1
By Jane Silloway Smith
Critique 1: 1.8% of deaths in Belgium occur without the patient’s explicit consent The ACT Party’s regular bulletin, Free Press,…
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Euthanasia Facts: A response to ACT’s Free Press
Recently, the ACT Party’s Free Press newsletter called into question the veracity of some facts used by Family First on…
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Assisted dying rejected again
By Jeremy Vargo
This past Friday the UK’s House of Commons rejected a bill that would legalise assisted suicide; with 330 MP’s voting…
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Why Not? | Making sense of the case against assisted suicide
Why shouldn’t New Zealanders be able to legally access assisted suicide or euthanasia? There are many compelling answers to that…
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A philosophy of death
Just over a week ago two titans of bioethical and moral thinking debated whether or not voluntary euthanasia should be…
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Public interest vs public safety
Words can have consequences. That’s why there are some subjects we have to tread around pretty carefully, and suicide is…
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No longer protected
Professor Theo Boer, an ethicist at Utrecht University, thought that the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia in his home…
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Caring for the whole person
“Now what’s wrong with your dad?” I was asked for the seventh time that day. I couldn’t believe it. We…
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Gambling with people’s lives
By Jane Silloway Smith
Last month, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down that country’s laws against assisted suicide. Because New Zealand’s Bill of Rights…
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The aftershocks of King Henry VIII
By Alex Penk
What does a long-dead Tudor king have to do with the Canterbury earthquakes? In late 2010, after the first shock,…
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On our behalf
By Jeremy Vargo
I sense a simple joy lightening the national mood. Since the Government’s u-turn on their previous u-turn—essentially promising they wouldn’t…
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The tragedy of Brittany Maynard
By Jane Silloway Smith
As a society, we cannot allow the value of life to be defined solely by a subjective, individual perception of…
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The business of social investment
We spend a lot on welfare. According to recent Treasury figures, of the $92.2 billion the Government spends, $50.5 billion…
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Choose, and choose wisely
By Jeremy Vargo
When I was 10 years old, I volunteered to distribute pamphlets for one of the electorate candidates in our area….
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What’s wrong with binding referendums?
By Jeremy Vargo
In July, Colin Craig stated that the introduction of binding citizen’s initiated referendums (BCIR) would be a bottom line for…
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MMP refresher – the paths to power
By Jeremy Vargo
Last week, my friends got into a heated discussion regarding David Cunliffe’s statements about Internet Mana. Mr Cunliffe said he…
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