Government considers how life should end
Across the country, debates about euthanasia and assisted suicide have brought end-of-life issues into the spotlight.
An all-party committee of MPs released a landmark report on palliative and compassionate care on November 24. With over 55 MPs involved, the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care (PCPCC) formed to consider how to improve care for elderly, dying and vulnerable Canadians. On their personal initiative and out of their office budgets, they held hearings, conducted research and issued a 193-page report.
"We realized that we had a lot in common," says MP Harold Albrecht, co-chair of the committee and one of the founding MPs. "We shared a desire to protect vulnerable people."
The report, "Not to be Forgotten: Care of Vulnerable Canadians," recommends ways to improve palliative care and strategies to prevent suicide and elder abuse. The report also recommends developing national strategies on palliative care, pain control and suicide prevention.
"We were clear from the outset that our intention was to protect human life," says Albrecht. "We believe that with the crucial pieces of good palliative care, good pain control and good personal care, the call for euthanasia will be dramatically reduced."
Another report released in November also considers end-of-life issues. The Royal Society of Canada commissioned the Panel on End-of-Life Decision Making to review and compile a public policy report on assisted death. The panel concluded that autonomy is the paramount value in Canadian public policy, and recommended changing the law to allow assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
The panel's final report states: "Canadians do not talk enough about the end of life. On a personal level, many of us do not plan for it, and as a nation we have failed to develop coherent policies or set sufficient standards for the end-of-life care delivered every day all across the country."
In Quebec, a special committee of the legislature has held hearings and is now working on a report. The Select Committee on Dying with Dignity was set up two years ago, and was expected to make its report this fall.
The courts are also considering assisted suicide. The B.C. Supreme Court finished hearings in December on a challenge of the law against assisted suicide, in a case known as Carter versus the Attorney General. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and four individuals launched the court challenge. They argued that the law against assisted suicide violates the Charter and asked the court to strike it down. A ruling is expected in January.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition was an intervener in the B.C. case.
"Concerns about safety, security and equality of people with disabilities and seniors will be central to the arguments advanced by EPC before the court, as will concerns about a harmful shift in our cultural ethic that will occur if assisted suicide is legalized," according to EPC legal counsel Hugh Scher.
"Right now, when you are a patient, you don't have to justify why the hospital should treat you," says Bruce Clemenger, President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. "The assumption right now is for life. If you allow euthanasia and assisted suicide, you put the sick and vulnerable in a position where they have to justify their treatment."
The December 5 report by the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada, "Achieving quality palliative care in Canada," echoes the need for further improvements. The report states, "Palliative care addresses death as the normal part of life that it is; not a problem to be solved but a process to be lived."
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