The Minister of Health appoints the Committee for a period of two years. Secretariat support for the Committee is provided by Manatū Hauora – the Ministry for Health.
The Committee’s role is specified in the Act.
The Review Committee has the following functions:
- to consider reports sent to it under section 21(3) (assisted death reports); and
- to report to the Registrar whether it considers that the information contained in an assisted death report shows satisfactory compliance with the requirements of this Act; and
- to direct the Registrar to follow up on any information contained in an assisted death report that the Review Committee considers does not show satisfactory compliance with the requirements of this Act.
The Committee meets regularly and examines every death report once sent to them by the Registrar (assisted dying) under Section 21(3) of the Act.
The Committee can only look at information contained in the death reports to arrive at its decision about whether the death shows satisfactory compliance with Section 21(2) of the Act. The information provided to the Committee is:
- the name of the attending medical practitioner or attending nurse practitioner; and
- the person’s name; and
- the person’s last known address; and
- the fact that the person has died; and
- which of the methods described in section 19(2)(a) was used; and
- a description of the administration of the medication; and
- whether any problem arose in the administration of the medication and, if so, how it was dealt with; and
- the place where the person died; and
- the date and time when the person died; and
- the name of the medical practitioner or nurse practitioner who was available to the person until the person died; and
- the names of any other health practitioners who were present when the person died.
To contact the Review Committee please email [email protected] and write ‘For the Review Committee’ in the subject line.
End of Life Review Committee members
Ms Brenda Close
Ms Brenda Close (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a health practitioner member of the Review Committee. Ms Close is currently employed as Chief Nursing Officer Toi Ora for Te Whatu Ora, Hauora a Toi in the Bay of Plenty. She is a member of National Nurse Leaders group and Chair for Komiti Maori (Nursing Council NZ). Ms Close has over 30 years’ experience managing and handling sophisticated health needs of people in hospitals and communities across Aotearoa and Australia with a focus on indigenous health, clinical supervision and corporate and clinical governance.
Elizabeth Fenton
Dr Elizabeth Fenton is a senior lecturer in the Bioethics Centre at the University of Otago with a background in philosophy and public health. She was previously a fellow in the Program in Ethics and Health at Harvard University, and a senior policy and research analyst at the U.S. Presidential Bioethics Commission under the Obama administration. Her research focuses on ethical issues in public health, global health, and health policy.
Danielle Heron
Dr Danielle Heron (BHSc (Nsg), MBChB, FRNZCGP) is a specialist general practitioner with 30 years of experience within the New Zealand health system across various support, nursing and medical roles. Dr Heron has spent the last three years working in palliative care in Te Tai Tokerau.
