{"id":948,"date":"2014-02-10T17:57:21","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T22:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vivredignite.org\/?p=948"},"modified":"2014-04-07T10:22:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T14:22:27","slug":"integral-version-faced-with-bill-52-jean-vanier-and-balfour-mount-launch-an-appeal-to-the-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/integral-version-faced-with-bill-52-jean-vanier-and-balfour-mount-launch-an-appeal-to-the-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Integral version &#8211; Faced with Bill 52, Jean Vanier and Balfour Mount launch an appeal to the conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This video presents the testimonies of Jean Vanier\u00a0and of\u00a0Balfour Mount\u00a0against euthanasia\u00a0and Bill 52, as well as those of Marc Beauchamp, Genevi\u00e8ve Dech\u00eane, Caroline Girouard, Michel Racicot\u00a0and Nicolas Steenhout.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While the Quebec MNAs are getting ready to\u00a0vote within the next few days on Bill 52 which\u00a0aims to legalise euthanasia under the term \u00ab medical aid\u00a0in dying \u00bb,\u00a0the real humanity experts\u00a0are giving out serious words of caution: offering and giving death intentionally to a person by injecting\u00a0a poison in them will never be a medical treatment, but a grave treason of the sick and dying.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EOuQ6Nr_Rf4\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jean Vanier, founder\u00a0of l'Arche<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0with its 150 communities\u00a0in 40 countries,\u00a0which welcome people living with a handicap\u00a0\u2013 clearly denounces euthanasia as a crime.\u00a0He appeals to our humanity in order to refuse any legalisation of euthanasia; we have to, he affirms,\u00a0relearn\u00a0how to accompany\u00a0vulnerable people\u00a0for our society to be\u00a0really humane.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Doctor Balfour Mount, founder\u00a0of palliative care\u00a0in\u00a0North America<\/strong>\u00a0and world expert\u00a0in the accompaniment of the dying, qualifies\u00a0as a grave error\u00a0the eventual legalisation\u00a0of euthanasia.\u00a0He insists: palliative care\u00a0can\u00a0take control of\u00a0all\u00a0the patients` pain and suffering\u00a0while the legalisation of euthanasia\u00a0would really put in danger all weakened and vulnerable people. The security and protection of all citizens is essential, it has always had precedence on the individual right in public health.<\/p>\n<p>Euthanasia is at our doorstep, but we still have the ability \u2013\u00a0for humanity`s sake\u00a0\u2013 to forbid it from entering.<\/p>\n<h3>Transcription - Integral Version<\/h3>\n<h4>Marc Beauchamp<\/h4>\n<p>The MNAs who will vote in a few weeks to adopt Bill 52 or not will probably take the most important decision of their careers. Because at the end of their decision, they will take part in a chain of events which\u00a0could bring about homicides.<\/p>\n<h4>Genevi\u00e8ve Dech\u00eane<\/h4>\n<p>I`ve been working as\u00a0a family doctor for the past 32 years\u00a0in Verdun, located south-west\u00a0of Montreal. I`ve been\u00a0doing palliative care at home for over 20 years. I refuse to see the law,\u00a0Bill 52,\u00a0I refuse this bill.\u00a0It\u00a0insults me and it surprises me, because it rehashes, in fact,\u00a0more concisely the essentials of the excellent end-of-life health\u00a0politics\u00a0from 2004. The minister has already doted itself with a superb 94-page policy which\u00a0explores in detail the medical services, nursing and other for dying patients in Quebec.\u00a0For the past 10 years this\u00a0policy has been signed but is tabled, and Quebecers\u00a0haven`t seen\u00a0a shadow of a change at the front lines of\u00a0end-of-life. And now we`re proposing a new law which repeats for the palliative care what has already been so well done. I don`t understant why. And they added on euthanasia.<\/p>\n<h4>Balfour Mount<\/h4>\n<p>I am thankful to be able to contribute to this crucial discussion. I`m talking to you as a doctor who has been at the bedside of dying people at the Royal Victoria hospital for the past 40 years.\u00a0But I also speak to you as a patient of cancer, having had a tracheostomy, which explains the breathing noises. Sorry for that.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, intentionally\u00a0killing the patient has never been accepted as a medical act since the\u00a0age of\u00a0Hippocrates, 2400\u00a0years ago.<br \/>\nSecondly, the legalisation of euthanasia\u00a0puts in\u00a0danger\u00a0the most vulnerable people among us\u00a0: the elderly,\u00a0the handicaped, those who cannot speak up for themselves,\u00a0those who fear that they are become deadweight to their\u00a0relatives;\u00a0the most vulnerable are put into danger when euthanasia is legalised.<\/p>\n<h4>Nicolas Steenhout<\/h4>\n<p>Because of that it is easy to become discouraged. Everyone becomes discouraged at one point or another, and we can really get seriously discouraged.\u00a0And when we become discouraged, we become vulnerable. Me, in my own experience, I know that five years ago if someone had told me \u00ablisten, euthanasia is available\u00bb, I probably would have done it.<\/p>\n<h4>Jean Vanier<\/h4>\n<p>For the past 50 years now, I`ve been living with people who are very weak, fragile, with handicaps which are sometimes very serious. Some cannot walk nor talk. And I believe that I can say that these are people who teach us what it is to love. That life is something precious. And in my community over many years, as you can very well imagine, there are many people who have died. We want to accompany them, to be with them until the last minute. We are by the very fact...There is no question of euthanasia. It`s like a sort of wound, a crime.<\/p>\n<h4>Balfour Mount<\/h4>\n<p>Thirdly, it`s not necessary because we are able to control pain and thanks to palliative care and a qualified team, we are able to minimize physical, psychological, social, spiritual and\u00a0existential suffering. And if there`s an exception, palliative sedation is legal, it`s part of palliative care and doesn`t require any type of legislative change.<\/p>\n<h4>Caroline Girouard<\/h4>\n<p>If, since the diagnosis, or at the end of a metastatic\u00a0disease, we introduce the option of death upon request, those patients who initially had the idea of ending their lives or of wanting someone to\u00a0end their lives, those patients won`t come back to the external clinic. Those patients there won`t have the chance to meet the team in palliative care, won`t have the chance to change their minds because they will have died earlier. I`m worried about those patients.<\/p>\n<h4>Balfour Mount<\/h4>\n<p>And fourthly, there is the whole question of our desire for control\u00a0-- the idea that at least I can control when I die and the feeling of which will reduce my anxiety because the unknown increases the anxiety that inhibits our adaptation mechanisms.\u00a0So I will feel more in control. I want to underlign, that over the ages, there has developped a general consensus relating as to\u00a0whether the rights of society trump the rights of the individual. Thus, when an individual is infected with a contagious disease, he is put under quarantine because the rights of society\u00a0trump the rights of the individual.\u00a0It is the same with this (euthanasia and the necessary protection of vulnerable people). I believe that it would be a catastrophic error to legalise euthanasia in Quebec and in Canada.<\/p>\n<h4>Genevi\u00e8ve Dech\u00eane<\/h4>\n<p>I find indecent that we propose to dying Quebec patients\u00a0that we kill them instead of take care of them.\u00a0I`m asking the MNAs who will vote on this law, I ask you to vote in favour of caring for our dying patients and not for euthanasia. The act of killing a patient who is dying is not a treatment, it`s a murder.<\/p>\n<h4>Caroline Girouard<\/h4>\n<p>As a doctor I refuse to participate in any way either by proposing or in giving death to\u00a0a single sick person.<\/p>\n<h4>Jean Vanier<\/h4>\n<p>And especially, we must avoid at all cost any legislation to kill people, to legislate euthanasia. But for that, our society must change. We must discover to a greater degree the accompaniment of the weak. Being with the weak, to discover that a society is not humane, really humane unless the weakest have their place among us. And the weakest of the weak, yes, are those with serious handicaps, but also those who are progressing to the end of their lives in a natural way.<\/p>\n<h4>Michel Racicot<\/h4>\n<p>A suicide is a tragedy and nevertheless there are about 1000 suicides a year in Quebec. \u00ab You are important for us, Suicide is not an option \u00bb, that is the message that the government of Quebec gives us in its campaign against suicide.\u00a0But the messages you are giving us are contradictory.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0M\u00e9nard report,\u00a0written to put into action the recommendations for the adoption of medical aid in dying,\u00a0sums it up well\u00a0for us : \u00ab\u00a0The interest of the State to preserve\u00a0life diminishes\u00a0towards the end of life... \u00bb That is the real message for the elderly. That is the real message\u00a0for the suffering : \u00ab You can bring us no profit. You cost us too much. So we will help you to go. \u00bb<\/p>\n<h4>Marc Beauchamp<\/h4>\n<p>We want to prevent the MNAs from making that mistake. Let palliative care build itself up to where it should be. Let medicine really treat people. And let us stop calling\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0medical\u00a0aid \u00bb what is in fact an injection to kill someone. Quebecers do not deserve to be given the option by their government that they supply a doctor to kill them. Quebecers deserve all the protection, they deserve to be protected until the end of their lives, even if they are really sick. Because each person is important in Quebec. Until the end of his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This video presents the testimonies of Jean Vanier\u00a0and of\u00a0Balfour Mount\u00a0against euthanasia\u00a0and Bill 52, as well as those of Marc Beauchamp, Genevi\u00e8ve Dech\u00eane, Caroline Girouard, Michel Racicot\u00a0and Nicolas Steenhout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1203,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}