Strengthening hospice resources may persuade people to choose life over assisted death

Our federal government has begun a process of consultation regarding the current medical assistance in dying law.

This is in response to a decision made by a Quebec court that determined the current law was unconstitutional. The law was struck down because the judge determined it restricted access to only those persons who were near death.

The government has until March 11, to change the law and expand the grounds for requesting medical assistance in dying. The public has until Jan. 27 to make its views known.

Hopefully, many people will make an effort to share their thoughts and feelings on this significant issue.

One thing to consider is that medical assistance in dying is not something new. It has been in Canada and the world since the beginning of medical care.

We only have to think of the ancient Greeks and the Hippocratic Oath with the principle “first do no harm.” Physicians have always focused on healing the sick and accompanying the dying.

They have assisted those near the end of life and the chronically ill by trying to alleviate pain and suffering. This is the essence of palliative and hospice care.

It is a holistic approach that considers not only the medical, but also the social, psychological, cultural and spiritual aspects. It involves accompanying the person by helping them to know that they are loved, respected and not alone. This medical assistance does not involve directly ending the life of the patient.

When the medical assistance in dying (MAID) law was passed in Canada in 2016, it seemed that this broader definition was limited to a much more narrow interpretation. It is now understood to be a specific intervention on the part of the physician to end a person’s life in order to alleviate suffering. Bill C-14 states, “medical assistance in dying means (a) the administering by a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner of a substance to a person, at their request, that causes death; or (b) the prescribing or providing by a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner of a substance to a person, at their request, so that they may selfadminister the substance and in doing so cause their own death.” (241.1)

Right from the moment this legislation was passed, there were some who believed it was too restrictive. MAID became the focus of those who believed they had a right to die even if death was not imminent. This is why there have been court challenges and the recent decision in Quebec.

In medical ethics, personal autonomy is a significant concept.

We should all have the right to make choices with regard to our medical care, however, my own faith tradition teaches that this right is not absolute when it comes to choosing death.

This teaching is rooted in a belief in the sanctity of life and in the belief that we are stewards of this gift of life, not masters.

I know that not everyone agrees with this teaching and that people have varied opinions on this important topic.

One area where I hope we can find greater consensus concerns palliative and hospice care. We should always remember that alleviating pain and suffering involves more than just ending a life.

We need to put more resources into other means of assisting people who are chronically ill or dying.

Various national studies have shown that not enough people have access to palliative and hospice care in our country. This is something that we should bring to the attention of our politicians.

If we can deal with the pain and isolation that many feel, perhaps they may choose life rather than death.