If you do something or fail to do something that causes someone to die, you have killed that person. This is true even if their death could have been stopped if the right actions were taken. The law says you are responsible for the death, regardless of whether it might have been prevented.
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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329308.
164: Acceleration of death, or
“You can be responsible for someone's death if you speed up their dying, even if they were already sick.”
166: Causing injury the treatment of which causes death, or
“If you hurt someone badly and they die because of how they were treated for that injury, it's still considered killing them.”
Every one who by any act or omission causes the death of another person kills that person, although death from that cause might have been prevented by resorting to proper means.
