Canadians Will Now Have a Choice When They Are Suffering At the End of Life

Debby

Debby

Well-known Member
Location
East coast of Canada
Yahooo! Canada's Supreme Court has unanimously decided that doctors can now assist terminally ill and suffering patients to end their lives when they choose!

Just listening to them make the announcement on the news. Not sure what the next step will be but finally this good and needed first step in the process of giving us autonomy in that last instance of life! Now for our government to get on board with the majority of Canadians AND our Supreme Court and change the laws to reflect what most of us want.
 

I firmly believe that the terminally ill should be given the option of letting Nature take its course...rather then being subjected to endless "medical experiments" that do little other than line the pockets of the doctors and hospitals. Towards that end, I think everyone should have Living Wills, and the various Powers of Attorney made out while they are still mentally and physically sound.

If you browse the statistics contained in the CDC data, it appears that the majority of our nations medical care costs are spent on the elderly and terminally ill in the final months of their lives. The ONLY ones who benefit from these "heroic" measures are the providers who are laughing all the way to the bank....delaying the inevitable is a Very Profitable Business.

When it becomes obvious that the end is near, the best thing our Health Care Industry can do is to make the passing as comfortable and pain free as possible...IMO.
 

How many men and women have to try by other means to end their lives under these conditions rather a painless legal method? Good for Canada.
 
Don M. said:
I firmly believe that the terminally ill should be given the option of letting Nature take its course...rather then being subjected to endless "medical experiments" that do little other than line the pockets of the doctors and hospitals. Towards that end, I think everyone should have Living Wills, and the various Powers of Attorney made out while they are still mentally and physically sound.

If you browse the statistics contained in the CDC data, it appears that the majority of our nations medical care costs are spent on the elderly and terminally ill in the final months of their lives. The ONLY ones who benefit from these "heroic" measures are the providers who are laughing all the way to the bank....delaying the inevitable is a Very Profitable Business.

When it becomes obvious that the end is near, the best thing our Health Care Industry can do is to make the passing as comfortable and pain free as possible...IMO.
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Well, we DO have Hospice available. Unfortunately it is usually presented to the family too late... I'm not sure if doctors are really interested in the money or if they simply do not want to admit defeat.. which is silly.
 
Josiah09 said:
That's very good news indeed. I was unaware of the efforts to pass legislation on this subject. Has there been a prolong debate in Canada about euthanasia?
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Twenty years ago it first went to court with one particular lady at the centre. She was turned down but later managed to find a still-unknown doctor who assisted her and then one of our then politicians spilled the beans to the media. That is when the discussion started and then a couple years ago (?) it went to court again, again it was banned but now finally with 84% of Canadians wanting this, finally, the courts recognized the need!
 
Don M. said:
I firmly believe that the terminally ill should be given the option of letting Nature take its course...rather then being subjected to endless "medical experiments" that do little other than line the pockets of the doctors and hospitals. Towards that end, I think everyone should have Living Wills, and the various Powers of Attorney made out while they are still mentally and physically sound.

If you browse the statistics contained in the CDC data, it appears that the majority of our nations medical care costs are spent on the elderly and terminally ill in the final months of their lives. The ONLY ones who benefit from these "heroic" measures are the providers who are laughing all the way to the bank....delaying the inevitable is a Very Profitable Business.

When it becomes obvious that the end is near, the best thing our Health Care Industry can do is to make the passing as comfortable and pain free as possible...IMO.
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What you're describing is a little different though than what Canada has finally done. Now a citizen who is suffering relentless and unending pain and for whom no meds have worked and wishes to just be done with it can ask a doctor to provide a fatal medication, or if someone is already terminal and suffering, they can get the legal assistance of a doctor in the same way.

The courts have attached pretty stringent controls to make sure that it isn't abused too. In particular, the patient has to have the ability to ask for death themselves. That's to protect 'Granny' from impatient family you know. And several doctors will be involved in the approval process, etc. So I think it was a very good day. We've moved from one small group of people determining for the majority how their lives will end and now we have a choice between palliative care or a dignified death.

I'm sure that young woman who had to move to Oregon to access that kind of special care was a significant influence on the thinking processes of the judges who unanimously decided to end the ban.
 
Back in the 1990's we had that Doctor Kevorkian who was engaged in "assisted suicides", and when he went public with one of his cases, he became a media storm, and was convicted of 2nd degree murder, and spent most of the rest of his life in prison. Since then, there has been little discussion or movement on that issue. In years to come, when the number of elderly reaches record proportions, perhaps this issue will once again get some needed attention.
 
Don M. said:
Back in the 1990's we had that Doctor Kevorkian who was engaged in "assisted suicides", and when he went public with one of his cases, he became a media storm, and was convicted of 2nd degree murder, and spent most of the rest of his life in prison. Since then, there has been little discussion or movement on that issue. In years to come, when the number of elderly reaches record proportions, perhaps this issue will once again get some needed attention.
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Kevorkian, a rather odd fellow to say the least.

http://www.biography.com/people/jack-kevorkian-9364141#illness-and-death
 
SifuPhil said:
Good for you, Canada!

As Don said, we were exposed to this issue many years ago but it has stalled out.
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Not entirely stalled out Phil. Remember that young woman who moved to Oregon last year who finally ended her own suffering from what was it? Brain cancer.

Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana and New Mexico all have variations of assisted suicide. http://time.com/3551560/brittany-maynard-right-to-die-laws/
So you at least have five states where it might be possible for a citizen to travel/move to in order to make use of the service.

That was an interesting link Dame Warrigal and Kevorkian was a bit of an oddball wasn't he? But maybe sometimes oddball's are needed to 'move things forward' just the tiniest bit.
 

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