Heed the call of Dr. Donald Low
Re Late physician issues call for euthanasia law, Sept. 25 On Sept. 7, 2013, our step-mother/mother-in-law died at the age of 91. She did not go with dignity or peacefully. For the past two years, she has wanted her life to end. She was mentally capable, independently cared for herself and very aware of what she wanted. She suffered ongoing pain and limited mobility that diminished her quality of life significantly. She was ready to go. Particularly sad and distressing were her last five weeks and, despite extraordinary effort by a very skilled and compassionate physician and specialist nurse, pain control was extremely challenging. She was mortified that she had to rely on others to provide all her personal care during her final weeks. She was often in agony. She begged to be taken. Her 92-year-old husband suffered a similar end-of-life experience with the added condition of dementia. We ask you, is this any way to end a long and happy life? Should doctors not have the means to respect a person’s wishes? We wholeheartedly want to echo Dr. Donald Low’s words on assisted death. Surely a civilized country such as Canada can follow the lead of other countries in this area. We challenge our politicians of all affiliations to bravely go where others would not. Margaret and Glenn Ringland, Alliston It is with extreme sadness that I bade farewell to my dog today. His euthanization (from the Greek, meaning “good death”) due to the painful condition of his illness, along with no future quality of life, is what he would have wanted. What a relief it was to take away his suffering when the time, along with no other possibility except for torment, had come.
What a relief it would be if we could do the same for the humans we love, upon their very own informed, sane judgment and request. It is, of course, a huge jump when comparing humans to our dogs, our cats. People are the higher species. And we have available to us the most humane end-of-life treatments possible — for our pets.
Dr. Low had no such humanity available to himself. Nancy Thorne, Whitby