Vulnerable groups can include but are not limited to older adults, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, persons in low socioeconomic brackets, refugees, and drug and alcohol abusers (Jecker, 1991 Morrow, 1997).

Yet, the attitudes of vulnerable populations toward EAS have not been widely studied. A key issue in the debate is the literature suggesting that socially marginalized populations may potentially be at risk of overutilization of EAS if both were to become legalized (Lamers & Williams, 2016). 2 Following the 2020 Referendum, the Act comes into effect in November 2021. Under the Act, New Zealanders eighteen years or older, with a prognosis of death in less than six months, have the right to: have medication administered by a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner (s 3(a)), or self-administer medication (s 3 (b)) to 'relieve the person's suffering by hastening death' (ss 3(a), (b)).

Research by Crothers ( 2020) synthesizing nationwide poll results before the General Election found that the majority of respondents across all aged groups supported the Act (77.7%), with the highest level of support among 31–45-year-olds (81.3%). A majority of voters supported the Act (MOH, N.Z., 2021). 1 At the 2020 General Election, New Zealanders voted in a binding referendum on whether the End of Life Choice Act 2019 (the Act) should come into force. On November 16, 2019, the End of Life Choice (EOLC) Act (2019) was given Royal Assent. After a lengthy process, it passed its third and final reading in November 2019 (Cooke, 2019). The End of Life Choices Act was first entered into a Parliament members' bill ballot in October 2015 (ACT, 2015). In Aotearoa, New Zealand, 'assisted dying' is a blanket term for assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. In contrast, assisted suicide refers to 'a person intentionally helping another person to terminate his or her life at that person's voluntary and competent request' (Radbruch et al., 2016 p.

According to the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), euthanasia is defined as 'the process by which a medical professional actively ends a patient's life by some medical means in response to a patient's voluntary and competent request' (Radbruch et al., 2016, p. Euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) refer to two different practices (Dixon, 1998 NHS, 2020). The terminology related to euthanasia and assisted suicide has yet to be internationally standardized. Laws permitting assisted suicide came into effect in the Australian state of Victoria in 2019 (Luzon, 2019). Among the locations where people can choose to end their lives in this manner are Switzerland and several US states, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington State, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Assisted suicide is more widely available than euthanasia. In some jurisdictions, euthanasia has been legalized, including the Netherlands and Belgium in 2002, Luxembourg in 2009, Colombia in 2015, and Canada in 2016. In the UK (Jaye et al., 2021), many assisted suicide bills have been advanced to Parliament, with none being successful. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are controversial and complicated social, ethical, and medical issues.

End of life choices california