The notion of assisted suicide and euthanasia is soon gaining public acceptance in New Zealand. A study conducted by the University of Massey has revealed that 70% of the participants in the study gave their support to assisted suicide for someone who suffers from an incurable and painful disease.

The litigious issue of medically assisted suicide and the ethics and legalities related with it has been brought to the limelight by the case of Margaret Page.

Margaret Page suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1991 which debilitated her. Her speech and movements were severely restricted. Page is attempting to end her life by starving herself to death. She says she does not want to live and has gone without food for twelve days.

While Page is fighting hard to end her life, she has been given ample support by her family members and the public.

Though people are in favor of voluntary euthanasia, they support it under certain conditions only. For example, only 45% people favored assisted suicide if the person was not in pain or did not have an incurable disease. Moreover, in such cases the opposition became twice as stronger. It doubled from 20 to 40%.