ASSISTED SUICIDE
Lecture tackles tough issue
Peter Nation admits that when his father was nearing death, it crossed his mind that he could help his father die prematurely and be free of his pain.
“Then I thought: That’s crazy. You’d be killing your father, and that’s not what you believe. The experience did help me respect what people experience when an elder family member is dying.”
Nation offers a voice of reason on the hot-button issue of physician-assisted suicide. He will be in Saskatoon on May 21 to present a lecture and workshop titled Physician-Assisted Suicide: How to Present the Case for Palliative Care Without Raising Your Voice.
Nation is a member of Catholic Voices, a group established in England in 2010 to help people defend their faith and address controversial issues without hostility or polarization. Nation, who holds degrees in philosophy and religious education, brought Catholic Voices to Canada two years ago. Since then, the organization has made presentations to hundreds of Canadians on a number of hot-button topics, none more controversial at the moment than physician-assisted suicide and the federal government’s plan to legalize it. The deadline for framing the new law is June 6.
Event organizer Maylane Wong says the conference will begin with a PowerPoint presentation and discussion on physicianassisted suicide, palliative care, and physicians’ conscience rights, followed by a Q&A. Nation will conduct an afternoon workshop using the Catholic Voices format to help people deal with the challenging questions.
The body of knowledge in the PowerPoint presentation contains facts people need to know about the issue. The discussion following will address how to create conversational space for people who don’t agree with euthanasia to talk about hospice and palliative care.
Nation says, “It creates an openness so those with opposing opinions will be prepared to listen to us.”
During the afternoon workshop, participants will pair off and role-play a conversation based on predictable questions challenging the faith community’s position on the issue.
The position favouring euthanasia often comes down to two main arguments: intolerable suffering and the belief that everyone should have the right to choose the time of their death.
“Doctors, and many who have experienced a loved one dying, tell us that there isn’t always intolerable pain at the end of life,” Nation says. “But people are understandably fearful of that, and they want to avoid the possible discomfort by choosing to end their life. We propose killing the suffering, not the patient. We favour the expansion of hospice and palliative care. Only 16 per cent to 30 per cent of Canadians have adequate palliative care at the end of life.”
He adds, “People can handle physical pain if their emotional suffering is being dealt with, if we’re with them, supporting them, helping them believe they have value even though they can’t do everything they did before.”
As for the argument for a person’s right to choose when they’ll die?
“What happens there is interesting. Very few strong-minded people want their life taken at the end.”
One of the major issues in the discussion is whether physicians will be mandated to participate. If the proposed law passes without revision, 83,000 members of the medical community will be required to help their patients die whether it goes against their conscience or not. In jurisdictions like the Netherlands and Switzerland, fewer and fewer doctors are comfortable with killing people.
“They’re running out of doctors willing to do it,” Nation says, “and many medical people are developing PTSD over it. We in Canada want to spare physicians, nurses, and anesthesiologists the trauma of putting people to death prematurely.”
He says the majority of physicians want doctors to be allowed an open choice regarding whether or not they will make a referral. “Even the professional association of psychiatrists is concerned, because if a patient wanting to die is just depressed, the fear is that psychiatrists or psychologists might be held responsible for assisting in the patient’s death.”
Nation says a conference like the one on May 21 is important because dying is something we cringe from in our society. “We’re not used to witnessing the natural end of life process, and we need to think about it. Our kids need to think about it if we expect them to care for us at the end of life, instead of putting us in a care home and then euthanizing us. We believe the proposed law opens up our society to a tremendous amount of elder abuse.”
The Physician-Assisted Suicide conversation will be held May 21 at St. Paul’s Co-Cathedral, 720 Spadina Crescent East, in the Bishop Mahoney Hall (use the Fifth Avenue entrance). Doors open at 9:15 a.m.
The cost is $30, which includes lunch. Registration by May 18 is requested. Register online at www.catholicvoices.ca/Saskatoon or call 306-653-5728.