Preliminary results released on 30 October 2020 showed 65.2% of New Zealand voters supported the End of Life Choice Act coming into force as a new law. The law will allow terminally ill people with less than six months to live the opportunity to choose voluntary assisted dying if approved by two doctors.

The referendum came after the End of Life Choice Bill passed its third and final reading 69 votes to 51 following one of the most prolonged legislative debates in New Zealand’s parliamentary history. The referendum is binding so the law is due to come into effect in November 2021.