New Zealand has seen a 37.21% increase in euthanasia and assisted suicides in one year, the New Zealand Ministry of Health found.
The report found that such deaths reached 472 between April 2024 and March 2025, which is more than a one-third increase from the previous year, when 344 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide occurred. The numbers show a concerning trend, as the deaths constitute 1.25% of deaths in the country.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide became legal by the passing of the End of Life Choice Act 2019, which became effective in November 2021. Individuals who are eligible for euthanasia and assisted suicide must be citizens or permanent residents and 18 or older. They must be expected to die within six months due to a terminal illness. Patients eligible must also be in irreversible decline and experience intolerable suffering.
However, one in five of the 12% of the people with disabilities who died by euthanasia or assisted suicide were not under palliative care. Psychiatric assessment for patients seeking euthanasia and assisted suicide were limited—only 19 applicants underwent an assessment that analyzes whether the patient is competent to make an informed decision.
The number of willing doctors appears to be decreasing, however. According to the Support and Consultation for End of Life Choice Group, which connects patients with doctors who assist in euthanasia and assisted suicide, 148 such practitioners were available in March 2023. But by March 2025, the number had shrunk to 126.
Christians across New Zealand oppose the rule, including 21 leaders who in 2020 wrote a joint statement advocating for the Biblical standpoint on how to treat those suffering from illness.
“In the face of seemingly ‘unbearable’ suffering, the termination of a patient’s life is justified in the name of ‘compassion,’” the letter read. “This so-called ‘compassionate’ euthanasia holds that it is better to die than to suffer, and that it would be compassionate to help a patient to die by means of euthanasia or assisted suicide. In reality, human compassion consists not in causing death, but in embracing the sick, in supporting them in their difficulties, in offering them affection, attention, and the means to alleviate the suffering.”
Pro-life groups are sounding their alarms, including Right To Life UK, an organization advocating for life by fighting abortion, assisted suicide, and embryo research.
“New Zealand appears to be following the same trend as other countries that have introduced euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation in recent years—a steep year-on-year increase in deaths through assisted suicide and euthanasia,” said Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK.
“The experience of New Zealand should serve as a portent of what we can likely expect in England and Wales should Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill pass the Lords.”
In June 2025, the U.K. House of Commons passed a law that legalizes assisted dying in England and Wales. The Terminally Ill (Adults) Bill allows assisted suicide if the patient, who is expected to die within six months, “has a clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life, and has made the decision that they wish to end their own life voluntarily and has not been coerced or pressured by any other person into making it.”
In the wake of policies legalizing assisted deaths, Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), which serves Christian doctors, nurses and midwives, issued a statement regarding the U.K. law’s passing.
“We do not despair. While we must consider how we respond as a church, as Christian families, and as Christian health professionals, we know that God, who is love, calls us to look to Him and not to our circumstances. So, let us pray—with lament but in hope. Let us love—with presence and perseverance. Let us speak—with clarity and compassion. Because God’s love never fails.”
