Thanks for the article. Keep digging, cousin! You will find even more disturbing scenarios that people need to know about...
-Quebec and BC rates of assisted suicide are approaching 5% of all their deaths (closer to 9% on the island);
-The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons requires doctors to participate even against their conscience, by writing an “effective referral” to a doc who will do the deed if they won’t, and following up to make sure it was done;
-Many people requested, and received, assisted suicide rather than go through another Covid lockdown;
-many specialist referrals (chronic pain clinic, psychiatry, neurology, etc) take 6-12 months to get into, or more, but current legislation for non-terminal assisted suicide requires that candidates only wait 90days, and that can be shortened by the physician;
-and for a suicidal patient, to whom do we offer suicide prevention and whom do we give suicide assistance?
It is truly a shocking situation. Ethical doctors following the Hippocratic Oath are being forced out. Most docs just make a referral and try to avoid the issue. And patients can shop around for doctors until they get 2 that agree to sign off.
We need more people standing up to sound the alarm, and helping with assisted living, reestablishing meaning in life for those on the brink... even those with only weeks to live can still teach others about caring and bearing each others burdens and sharing life lessons. There is always hope, and always meaning through suffering that brings dignity (Victor Frankl). Dignity does not come at the end of a needle.
Ok. I’ll be done for now. Lots more could be said. Thanks again for raising the issue.
Thanks for reading, Luke, and for pointing me in a few other directions. It's pretty alarming and really value your perspective. That line: Dignity doesn't come at the end of a needle. So good.
Andrew, my dad was a family physician long before there was much talk of MAID. He used to tell his potentially suicidal patients to wait until morning. Some of them later told him that this advice saved their lives. He would certainly have been dead against MAID except possibly for people who were living in agony with a foreseeably imminent death - but I am not even sure of that.
Interestingly, however, when diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) he was asked if he wished to prolong life with blood transfusions. He said "No" and died a month after diagnosis. The wife of a friend of his got the same diagnosis and went for the transfusions. She lived another 3 years.
I had told my dad about my 300+ blood donations and reminded him of his significant number. I also mentioned the case of a young woman who spoke at a donor awards dinner. She had Thalassemia major. She could not make her own blood cells and depended entirely on blood transfusions. He thanked me for the support - but let himself die nonetheless. Ever uncomplaining, none of us will ever know to what level his quality of life had descended.
I retain a mind in a whorl on the subject. I lack the courage to do anything but "Rage, rage against the dying of the light!" if faced with the kind of misery some people experience. I do, however, fear that some experience depression out of all proportion to the triggering issue. All I can do is hope that doctors who gauge these things are aware of this.
Thanks for reading, Tom, and for sharing the story about your father. The "wait until morning" anecdote is so fascinating and lines up with the science. The mental health stipulation added to MAID is frightening. Such an important conversation to have!!
Thanks for the article. Keep digging, cousin! You will find even more disturbing scenarios that people need to know about...
-Quebec and BC rates of assisted suicide are approaching 5% of all their deaths (closer to 9% on the island);
-The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons requires doctors to participate even against their conscience, by writing an “effective referral” to a doc who will do the deed if they won’t, and following up to make sure it was done;
-Many people requested, and received, assisted suicide rather than go through another Covid lockdown;
-many specialist referrals (chronic pain clinic, psychiatry, neurology, etc) take 6-12 months to get into, or more, but current legislation for non-terminal assisted suicide requires that candidates only wait 90days, and that can be shortened by the physician;
-and for a suicidal patient, to whom do we offer suicide prevention and whom do we give suicide assistance?
It is truly a shocking situation. Ethical doctors following the Hippocratic Oath are being forced out. Most docs just make a referral and try to avoid the issue. And patients can shop around for doctors until they get 2 that agree to sign off.
We need more people standing up to sound the alarm, and helping with assisted living, reestablishing meaning in life for those on the brink... even those with only weeks to live can still teach others about caring and bearing each others burdens and sharing life lessons. There is always hope, and always meaning through suffering that brings dignity (Victor Frankl). Dignity does not come at the end of a needle.
Ok. I’ll be done for now. Lots more could be said. Thanks again for raising the issue.
Thanks for reading, Luke, and for pointing me in a few other directions. It's pretty alarming and really value your perspective. That line: Dignity doesn't come at the end of a needle. So good.
Andrew, my dad was a family physician long before there was much talk of MAID. He used to tell his potentially suicidal patients to wait until morning. Some of them later told him that this advice saved their lives. He would certainly have been dead against MAID except possibly for people who were living in agony with a foreseeably imminent death - but I am not even sure of that.
Interestingly, however, when diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) he was asked if he wished to prolong life with blood transfusions. He said "No" and died a month after diagnosis. The wife of a friend of his got the same diagnosis and went for the transfusions. She lived another 3 years.
I had told my dad about my 300+ blood donations and reminded him of his significant number. I also mentioned the case of a young woman who spoke at a donor awards dinner. She had Thalassemia major. She could not make her own blood cells and depended entirely on blood transfusions. He thanked me for the support - but let himself die nonetheless. Ever uncomplaining, none of us will ever know to what level his quality of life had descended.
I retain a mind in a whorl on the subject. I lack the courage to do anything but "Rage, rage against the dying of the light!" if faced with the kind of misery some people experience. I do, however, fear that some experience depression out of all proportion to the triggering issue. All I can do is hope that doctors who gauge these things are aware of this.
Thanks for reading, Tom, and for sharing the story about your father. The "wait until morning" anecdote is so fascinating and lines up with the science. The mental health stipulation added to MAID is frightening. Such an important conversation to have!!