However, the New Zealand pubic now have a weighty responsibility to vote on this bill, the outcome of which will have significant consequences for health care, both for patients and their carers. To vote responsibly, I hope that New Zealanders will seek high quality information from all sides of the argument, wrestle with the debate, and form a carefully considered opinion on which to vote.
To this end, I want to promote what I consider to be a well balanced treatment of some of the key issues. Shankar Vedantam hosts a podcast from NPR called Hidden Brain. In a recent episode titled 'The Ventilator' he presents a story which highlights the important issues in this 'End of Life Choice' debate. Please listen to it in its entirety.
This blog is intentionally brief, as I consider Shankar does enough to stimulate thinking and hopefully motivate the listener/reader to engage in their own exploration of the issues. However, I personally want to say just a little more. You will find this below as another link titled 'my commentary.' Please only read this once you have listened to 'The Ventilator.'
