WandaMorrisDWD

One of our fundamental rights as healthcare patients is the right of informed consent. No medical practitioner can perform any test, diagnostic or procedure without first obtaining this consent.

This means that medical professionals are very experienced at assessing capacity because if an individual doesn't have capacity, they can't provide informed consent.

One of the reasons that our process is somewhat long and involved is to give us a chance to interact with our potential clients and assess their capacity. If we have any reason to doubt their capacity we would either refuse them outright or require them to complete a capacity assessment.

Our support is typically offered to individuals and their families. If someone makes the decision to end their life, we continue to support their family members afterwards.

We encourage our clients (or potential clients) to talk to their family members, and we can provide support to help them do so. It is generally this dialogue and discussion that allows family members to support the choices that their loved ones want to make.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the people who we help are facing the prospect of horrific deaths. People don't want their loved ones to die, but they also don't want them to suffer. Given the opportunity for reflection, most family members will support the choices of their loved ones.

There was a very lovely and very moving series conducted by CBC's White Coat Black Art program with Dr. Brian Goldman. He conducted three separate interviews. The final interview with Nagui's widow, Jan Crowley (and DWD President Meg Westley) provides a wrenching inside look into how someone faces the planned death of someone they truly love. You can listen to it here:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/White+Coat+Black+Art/Full+Episodes/ID/2279230574/

Thanks for the question. I prefer to use descriptors such as medically assisted dying, or physician assisted death or end of life choice. Suicide has a very negative connotation and I think it should. When we think about suicide, we generally think about someone suffering from a deep depression and acting in a way that if they lived, they would regret.

In contrast, our clients and the general population who support legalizing physician assisted dying are people who love life. It is just that they have been unfortunate enough to be afflicted with a condition or illness that is killing them. They are dying - that is not a choice they are making. The choice they want is to how they die - preferably peacefully and gently rather than through the horrific death that might otherwise await them.

In terms of changes in Canada, we are at a very exciting time. The province of Quebec has announced that they will introduce legislation by the end of June that will legalize physician assisted dying in that province. The legislation will of course have to go through various readings - but it could in fact be passed by the end of the year.

Quebec's situation is particularly intriguing as they are going down a previously untried route. Rather than trying to challenge the criminal code, they are side-stepping it. They've announced that this is essentially a medical matter and are going to address it through healthcare legislation.

The court case in the province of BC continues. We've now heard the appeal and are waiting for the decision. Whoever loses will then appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada who (we hope) will strike down the existing law and give parliament a year to write a new one.

The other interesting twist in the Canada / US impact is that all US legislation and the court decision out of Montana have focused on giving a terminally ill person (with 6 months or less to live) a prescription that they can take themselves.

Here in Canada, we believe in a model that is closer to that typically used in Europe. For example, we believe that individuals with an incurable condition and unbearable suffering should be eligible for support. There is no specific time frame around the person's life expectancy.

We also support not only the right of an individual to obtain a prescription that allows them a gentle death, but also the right of sick and dying individuals to request and receive voluntary euthanasia.

Sue Rodriguez, a woman with ALS who took her case to the Supreme Court of Canada 20 years ago was instrumental in increasing Canadian support for assisted dying. We don't believe that we should accept a solution which would not have provided the support Sue Rodriguez (and now Gloria Taylor) required to have a peaceful death.

These principles were supported in both the decision from the Carter Case (featuring Gloria Taylor) at the BC Supreme Court and in the report from Quebec which is the basis for the legislation being prepared in that province.

Like a lot of our members, I got involved because of the horrific death of a loved one. My father-in-law (in England) had dementia and became increasingly violent in its final stages. He never would have wanted to be in a care home, but that's where he ended up.

He also had become very weak in his legs so was in a wheelchair. As the dementia progressed, he lost his sense of boundaries and would run the wheelchair into furniture, and then into the staff and other residents.

To protect the staff and residents, and himself, the staff took the arms of his wheelchair and placed them on a windowsill, so that no matter how much he tried to move the chair, he was stuck.

When he tried to then crawl down from the chair, the staff ended up strapping him in.

That is how he spend the last weeks of his life. My husband came home after his final visit to his father and was tormented by what he'd seen. He asked me to make sure that whatever happened, I wouldn't let that happen to him.

I'd long been a supporter of the cause in principle, but this personal experience prompted me to volunteer which eventually led to my current role.

Sigh.

What we support is a legal framework with checks and balances that allows people to make their own choices.

It sounds like you have particular religious beliefs and asking for assistance to die would not be a personal choice for you. Great that you have such clarity.

What our members and supporters, and the 80% of Canadians who support physician assisted dying, want is the right to make their own choices.

It is not right or fair or just that individuals with particular religious viewpoints use the coercive power of government to impose their views on the rest of us!