SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Lecretia Seales did not get her dying wish – High Court decision issued

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Lecretia Seales did not get her dying wish.

Only Parliament can change the law to reflect her wishes, Justice David Collins said.

The judgment from the High Court at Wellington explains Seales’ doctor would have been at risk of being prosecuted for either murder or manslaughter if she administered a fatal drug to Seales, intending to kill her.

The judgment also explains Seales’ doctor would be at risk of being prosecuted with assisting suicide if she provided Seales with a fatal drug, intending Seales take that drug and if Seales died as a consequence.

The provisions of the Crimes Act are not inconsistent with the Bill of Rights, Collins said.

He conveyed his deepest condolences to her husband, family and friends.

Seales would have learned of the outcome on Tuesday, the judgment reveals.

“I cannot declare that Ms Seales’ doctor would be acting lawfully if she administered a fatal drug to Ms Seales within the terms sought.

“Nor can I declare that it would be lawful for Ms Seales’ doctor to provide her with a fatal drug knowing that Ms Seales intended to use that drug to end her own life and did so.”

“Because Ms Seales’ health is rapidly deteriorating, I informed the parties of this aspect of my decision on 2 June 2015.”

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/69112451/lecretia-seales-did-not-have-right-to-die-high-court-rules

Link to High Court Ruling

Lecretia Seales’ assisted dying case at top of slippery slope, opponents say

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Opponents of Lecretia Seales’ court case to clarify the law on doctor-assisted death say it would be the start of a slippery slope if she were to succeed.

The terminally ill Wellington lawyer’s application begins in the High Court at Wellington on Monday.

Treatment of her brain tumour has ended and she is having palliative care, but believes that might not continue to meet her needs. She wants the option of having her doctor help her to die if her suffering is intolerable.

That option would likely give her a longer, more peaceful life than if her only way to end suffering was to take her own life while still able to do so unaided, her claim says.

Seales, 42, says the court case is about her and her circumstances only.

The attorney-general, who is the defendant in the case, disagrees and so does an interest group, Care Alliance, which has been allowed a limited say in Seales’ case.

Solicitor-General Mike Heron, QC, representing the attorney-general, said if Seales’ claim were accepted, it would have implications well beyond her case and would apply to all who have a terminal illness and think their suffering is intolerable.

“The attorney-general’s position is that the conventional understanding of the Crimes Act – which precludes physician-assisted dying – must continue to apply unless and until it is altered by Parliament.”

Care Alliance says that, if Seales is successful, overseas experience suggests it would be the start of a slippery slope that would put vulnerable lives at risk. [Read more…]

Registered financial advisor stole $3 million from investors

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A financial adviser has pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $3 million in investor funds and shares.

Andrew Robinson, 42,  the principal of mortgage broking and insurance firm Strategic Planning Group, appeared in the High Court at Auckland on Wednesday morning where he pleaded guilty to four charges of theft by a personal in a special relationship, one of improperly dealing with funds and one charge of fraudulently using a document.

He pleaded guilty to stealing about $2.5 million of Strategic Planning Group investor funds, and three other counts of stealing $50,000 to $258,000 from four named people.

Robinson was a registered financial adviser until being stripped of this status when the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Markets Authority began investigating.

Between 2010 and 2012, Robinson used $3m in investor funds to pay for personal and business expenses or to repay other investors, and lied to investors when proving reports.

He was remanded in custody to a disputed facts hearing in June. Robinson and Mark Turnock, a co-director of Strategic Planning Group, also face charges brought by the FMA relating to making false statements.

Source: Stuff News. Published 13 May 2015

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/68505855/Financial-advisor-stole-3-million-from-investors

Reports of NZ teachers’ misconduct increase

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Hundreds of New Zealand teachers have been investigated for inappropriate conduct in the past five years.

Sexual misconduct, pornography, violence, alcohol, drugs, dishonesty, fraud and theft are some of the serious breaches of conduct by teachers.

And the number of teachers being reported is on the rise, figures obtained by Fairfax Media show.

In 2014, 427 conduct reports were referred by the New Zealand Teachers Council to the Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC), compared to 252 referrals in 2010.

Of the 427 referrals last year, 69 were as a result of complaints from members of the public.

Conduct issues reported by current or former employees accounted for 214 referrals while 144 referrals were because a teacher recorded a criminal conviction.

In the past five years, 1781 teachers have come under the scrutiny of the CAC with 118 struck off the teachers register.

For many others, there was no further action or an agreement was reached between the teacher and the person who made the complaint.

Subsequently 45 teachers were referred to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal and 27 of those were deregistered.

Other sanctions handed down by the tribunal included censure, suspension and conditions on the teacher’s practising certificate.

For full story go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/67617060/reports-of-teachers-misconduct-increase

Ant Timpson – “The ABCs of Death” R18 DVD “contains sadistic violence…” and more

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Anthony Timpson – known as Ant Timpson, a New Zealand Film maker who is co-producer of a horror anthology – The ABCs of Death – is currently campaigning to raise money to help a US teacher Sheila Keams fight against her convictions on felony charges she received for showing his unrated film to US school children, some as young as 14, in Spanish language classes. In January 2015 Kearns, 58, was found guilty of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and has received a jail sentence of 90 days.

The film produced as a DVD comprises 26 short films – each with different directors and each dealing with a different horror death scenario based on a different letter of the alphabet – is unrated in the USA. Media are reporting it is replete with “explicit sex scenes and features gory deaths”.

In New Zealand the 129:43 min long film was submitted on DVD format to The Office of Film and Literature Classification by the Film and Literature Board of Review and was classified as a restricted R18 film for NZ audiences, on 25 March 2013. It is classified ” Objectionable except if the availability of the publication is restricted to persons who have attained the age of 18 years“. The Censor’s descriptive note states, contains “Sadisic violence, drug use, offensive language and sex scences“. The NZ distributor of the film is the New Zealand Film Festival Trust.

In 2012, friends Ant Timpson, founder of the Incredibly Strange Film Festival, and Tim League, founder of Fantastic Fest and the Alamo Drafthouse, joined forces to produce the incredibly ambitious, possibly insane, horror anthology The ABCs of Death.