More than twenty years after my trip to The Hague, I was again being given access to protocols to end patients’ lives. Only, this time, it was in my own country. In my province. From my College. I never thought this day would come. And I am still chilled.
Continue Reading → I never thought this day would come
"Euthanasia? Assisted suicide? There’s an app for that"... This remark aptly underscores the rapidity with which discussion of what was called, not very long ago, mercy killing has become normalized, even banal.
Continue Reading → A deadly form of normal
A study conducted by the Southern Medical Association has found that, despite suggestions that legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) could lead to a reduction in total suicides and to a delay in those suicides that do occur, legalizing PAS has been associated with an increased rate of total suicides relative to other states and no decrease in nonassisted suicides. This suggests either that PAS does not inhibit (nor acts as an alternative to) nonassisted suicide, or that it acts in ...
Continue Reading → How Does Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide Affect Rates of Suicide?
A Vancouver Island doctor is resigning from the ethics committee at a local Catholic hospital because it refuses to offer assisted dying on site, a stand that he says is unnecessarily causing critically ill patients more suffering as they are transferred to facilities dozens of kilometres away.
Continue Reading → B.C. doctor takes stand against Catholic hospital’s assisted dying policy
As a mother of three children, including one with a severe developmental disability, Laurie Geschke admits that looking into the future was not something she did before her children became adults. It was only then that she and her husband began seriously contemplating their wills.
Continue Reading → Parents of disabled children face daunting financial preparation