New Zealand Legalizes Euthanasia as World Begins to Accept the Practice

In a late October referendum, New Zealanders voted in favor of legalizing euthanasia, the practice of allowing patients with an incurable and painful illness to terminate their life early. This binding act, which will go into effect on Nov. 6, 2021, will make New Zealand one of seven countries to permit the controversial practice. Assisted suicide, a similar practice which involves a physician aiding in ending a terminal patient’s life, is legal in a handful of jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Germany and several U.S. states.

The practice of euthanasia, while gaining support around the globe, is still considered controversial, especially among religious communities. The Roman Catholic Church, for instance, has condemned the practice, stating in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that: “Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.” This opposition has resulted in a patchwork system of legal euthansia, assisted suicide or other means of voluntarily terminating one’s life.

New Zealand’s “End of Life Choice Act”

A view of Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city. Pedro Szekely. CC BY-SA 2.0.

New Zealand’s referendum centered around whether or not the country should adopt the 2019 End of Life Choice Act. The law, which was originally introduced in October 2015 by member of Parliament David Seymour, permits voluntary euthanasia for patients confirmed by two doctors to have a terminal illness and be in the final six months of their lives.

“The motivation for this bill is compassion,” Seymour said in a press release from political party ACT New Zealand. “It allows people who so choose and are eligible under this bill to end their life in peace and dignity, surrounded by loved ones.”

While public opinion in New Zealand over the last two decades has averaged around 68% annually in support of legalized euthanasia, opponents to the practice have succeeded in shooting down similar legislation. Two iterations of the Death with Dignity Bill and a previous iteration of the End of Life Choice Bill, which outlined similar euthansia legalization statuses to the one voted on last month, failed to make it through Parliament in 1995, 2003 and 2012, respectively.

The main opposition force to euthanasia in New Zealand has been The Care Alliance, an organization which was created shortly after the introduction of the 2012 End of Life Choice Bill. It advocates for “better end-of-life care and assisted living services for people at the end of life or who require assistance to live” with the belief that “a compassionate and ethical response to suffering does not include euthanasia or assisted suicide.”

The current End of Life Choice Act is set to go into effect on Nov. 6, 2021, which allows for a one-year implementation period to take place immediately after the results of the referendum were finalized on Nov. 6, 2020.

Bans on Euthanasia Around the Globe

A crowd listens as Pope Francis delivers Sunday Angelus. Greg Sass. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

As of November 2020, euthanasia in any form is explicitly banned in countries on every continent. While each country has its own reasons for banning the practice, one standard which has inhibited further global legalization has been the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life." This has been interpreted by many in opposition to euthanasia as a standard to abide by.

Many within the religious community have opposed euthanasia for years. Many denominations of Christianity, including Episcopalianism, Lutheranism, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the aforementioned Catholicism, have all condemned the practice as a form of murder.

While Islam does not explicitly prohibit euthanasia, the practice is considered to be in direct opposition to Islamic law. Several passages from the Quran have been interpreted in such a manner, including “And do not take any human being’s life—which Allah has made sacred save with right” and “Do not kill yourselves: for verily Allah is to you most merciful.” This has resulted in euthanasia being a crime in nearly all majority-Muslim countries.

Other world religions, such as Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, are still debating the ethics of euthanasia. Generally, these debates center around a conflict between a divine right to life and the increasing trend toward global secularism.

Euthanasia’s Patchwork Legality

The flag of the World Health Organization. United States Mission Geneva. CC BY-ND 2.0.

Euthanasia in any form and assisted suicide are legal in at least one country on every continent except Africa. Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the Australian state of Western Australia are the most permissive places for euthanasia, allowing for the active form of the practice, which involves an incurably ill patient receiving terminal care.

Passive euthanasia, the practice of refusing medical treatment and receiving appropriate pain management, is more broadly legal, primarily in the Western world but also in India, South Korea, Argentina and Chile.

The Australian state of Victoria and the countries of Germany and Switzerland permit assisted suicide. This practice differs from both active and passive euthanasia in that a physician is not the one terminating a patient’s life, but rather aids a patient as they terminate their own life. In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in the District of Columbia, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. Additionally, the legal status of assisted suicide in Montana is disputed due to an unclear court ruling in 2009.

With the ongoing pandemic and renewed discussions on the ethics of ending one’s life, euthanasia remains a hotly debated issue which likely will not go away any time soon.

Jacob Sutherland

is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.

Anti-Semitism on the Rise Again in Europe

In October of last year, a gunman in the US city of Pittsburgh opened fire at a synagogue, murdering eleven people and wounding six before being apprehended by police. On New Year’s Eve, a Berkeley resident was charged with leaving a fake bomb on the campus of the University of California that was covered in “anti-Jewish writings”. The man was charged with dropping off a fake explosive but was not charged with a hate crime. With the recent rash of violent outbreaks in American cities and xenophobic rhetoric coming from the White House, it is easy to think that hatred and bigotry are exclusively American traits. However, one of the darkest chapters in anti-Semitism occurred in Europe in the 1940s, when around six million Jews, roughly two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe at the time, were murdered by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. Now, over 70 years later, the very same mentality that led to these heinous acts is once again emerging in the hearts and minds of Europeans.

A CNN poll conducted in Europe last year revealed that anti-Semitism is rising in the continent as the memory of the Holocaust gradually fades. Roughly a third of Europeans polled said they knew little or nothing about the Holocaust, and a quarter believed Jews held too much power and influence in business and finance. Among European nations, France had the largest incidence of anti-Semitism, as it is home to the largest population of Jews in Europe. Anti- Semitic acts in France increased by 69 percent in 2018. Most notable among these was the murder Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old holocaust survivor who was killed in her apartment last year. French authorities attribute this to growing hostility to the influx of Muslims from the Middle East, a phenomenon which is being called, “the new anti-Semitism.”

In Paris, thousands of French citizens turned out for a "White March", a silent memorial march in Knoll's honor. Olvey. CC BY-SA 4.0.

The study of history allows us to learn the pattern of human behavior and make predictions as to how people may act in a given time and place. History has shown that with the right push, a group can easily become a mob, and even the most “enlightened” cultures can experience rapid cultural backsliding. The current situation in Europe shows how important the teaching and re-teaching of events like the Holocaust are, not necessarily for the purpose of living in the past but rather, trying to prevent such horrific events from occurring again in the future.

JONATHAN ROBINSON is an intern at CATALYST. He is a travel enthusiast always adding new people, places, experiences to his story. He hopes to use writing as a means to connect with others like himself. 

Reviving a Lost Community, One Loaf at a Time

The rich Jewish culture of a Ukrainian town was all but wiped out by the Nazis and the ensuing Soviet era. But one New York Jew is trying to bring it back, one loaf of challah at a time.

Celebrating World Refugee Day

Remembering Dr. Ho Fengshan and the Jewish Immigrants to Shanghai

Two seconds isn’t much time. It’s a blink of an eye, really—but in that blink, another person became a refugee according to UNHCR. And in a world where one out of every 110 people is a refugee, you might not want to blink. Indeed, take a moment—if you haven’t already—to admire refugees and their unique experience. They epitomize strength and courage in the face of adversity. They leave for better, even when that better is increasingly closed off from them as both their countries and other countries push back. And on World Refugee Day, celebrated this past year on June 20th for the 18th time, the refugee is celebrated for their resilience that is often lost amidst the politics.

Even though World Refugee Day is relatively new, the refugee is not. Since 1950, the UNHCR has worked with refugees—from the early days working with those displaced by World War II to today’s 22.5 million. But what happened before the UNHCR? During World War II the refugee crisis was largely dealt with by countries directly. However these efforts were mostly unsuccessful: the Evian conference failed to find a solution for what was then termed the “Jewish Refugee Problem.” Out of the 32 countries that convened in July 1938, only the Dominican Republic was willing to take in 100,000 refugees. Leaving thus required the kindness of others, especially that of diplomats.

One such diplomat was Dr. Ho Fengshan, who was the consul general of the Chinese Consulate in Vienna, Austria from 1938-1940. He helped issue thousands of “lifesaving visas” against his superior’s orders to help Jews migrate to Shanghai, which was then an open port city with no immigration controls. Some used the Shanghai visa to obtain a transit visa to other destinations. One professor estimates Dr. Ho Fengshan helped save over 5,000. His efforts earned him the posthumous title “Righteous Among the Nations,” a civil honor bestowed by Israel, and the nickname the “Chinese Schindler.”

And in Shanghai the impact of Dr. Ho Fengshan’s action can still be seen at the Jewish Refugee Museum housed in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue in the Hongkou neighborhood. A memorial spans a back wall with the names of the some 18,000 who found refuge there. Interspersed amongst the Goldsteins, Roths, and Schwartzs are quotes that speak to the refugee experience. Rena Krasno referenced tough beginnings, “the refugees found it very hard to adjust to local conditions,” while Nina Admoni looked on her time as a refugee as an “emotional experience.” Most remarkable is  the absence of prejudice on the walls—rather it is a sense of camaraderie seemed to have formed between the Chinese and Jews in Hongkou. A kinship that later became founded on a shared pain from the Japanese occupation.

The start of the memorial wall at the Jewish Refugee Museum (62 Changyang Road Shanghai, China)

Looking back at the Jewish refugees in Shanghai provides a glimpse of refugees today: a mix of personal perseverance and external kindness. For many of the Jews in Shanghai, Dr. Ho Fengshan was a boost to their internal determination and shows the power of a small act of kindness. And as we celebrate the courage of refugees this week, we must ask ourselves how we can lend a helping hand. Maybe it is something small, like being a welcoming neighbor to resettled refugees, or something as big as  volunteering with the International Rescue Committee. Whatever it may be, focus on the individual and their story.

TERESA NOWALK is a student at the University of Virginia studying anthropology and history. In her free time she loves traveling, volunteering in the Charlottesville community, and listening to other people’s stories. She does not know where her studies will take her, but is certain writing will be a part of whatever the future has in store.