Only 15 to 30 percent of dying Canadians have access to or receive hospice palliative care or end-of life services, dedicated to addressing all forms of suffering — physical, psychological and existential — affecting patients nearing death and their families. And yet, all healthcare facilities may be required to offer physician-hastened death, i.e., euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Continue Reading → Speaking for those who can’t
The Winnipeg Centre Liberal MP is conflicted about the bill following a rash of suicides in 2 communities.
Certainly standard modern definitions of medicine, such as 'the science of diagnosing, treating, or preventing disease and other damage to the body or mind' (American Heritage Dictionary), no longer properly identify medicine where 'medical assistance in dying' refers not to palliative care but to deliberate killing.
Legalizing assisted suicide in other states has led to a rise in overall suicide rates — assisted and unassisted — in those states.
Continue Reading → The dangerously contagious effect of assisted-suicide laws