THE DOMINION POST WRITES ME A LETTER

Get this: the Dominion Post has sent ME a letter. First time ever!

It's their response to my latest letter on euthanasia (see below), which they declined to publish. Instead they ran an anodyne letter which made no mention of their glaring mistake, and emailed me an explanation so weak it could hardly stagger onto my screen.

THE ARTICLE , said the Dom Post, WAS WRITTEN FOR A FEB 17 DEADLINE BUT HAD TO BE HELD OVER BECAUSE OF THE SUSAN AUSTEN TRIAL. WE WERE 'CAUGHT OUT' BY THE EXTENSION TO THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS.

What was their sub-editor doing? Her fingernails?

By publishing a euthanasia article on Saturday March 3 which stated the deadline for submissions was Feb 20, theoretically the Dom Post could have forestalled a tsunami of last-minute submissions either for or against, which theoretically could have swayed MPs’ decisions, which theoretically could be the subject of a complaint to the Press Council – which theoretically could have inspired the Dom Post’s unprecedented email to me.

Please note that they offered no apology!

Here's the letter they declined to print:

It’s beyond unfortunate, it’s irresponsible for the Dominion Post to say (The end of days, March 3) that submissions on Act’s Lone Ranger David Seymour’s assisted suicide bill closed on February 20.

People can make submissions until midnight, Tuesday March 6. Do try to keep up!

It’s unfortunate also that you don’t mention the countries where assisted suicide is illegal and likely to remain so - like the UK, like Ireland, Italy, France;  43 of the States of America, and all the Australian states except Victoria and the Northern Territories.

Contrary to the whole tone of your article, especially the sidebar, euthanasia is absolutely not sweeping the world.

Maybe because many people still remember the euthanasia programme for the mentally and physically disabled, both adults and children, which expanded to include bombing victims, geriatric patients and foreign forced labour, in Nazi Germany in World War II.