The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association has lauded recommendations for the improvement of palliative care contained in a report from the Quebec Comission on Dying with Dignity. However, it states that euthanasia and assisted suicide should not be part of palliative or hospice care, and that hospice and palliative care workers should not be expected to participate in such practices if they are legalized. [News Release]
Category: Canada
Quebec Commission on Dying with Dignity Releases Death with Dignity Report
Improvements to hospice palliative care recommended
NEWS RELEASE
April 2, 2012 (Ottawa, ON) – The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) is optimistic about many of the recommendations put forth in the Special Commission on Dying with Dignity’s (Commission spéciale sur la question de mourir dans la dignité) report, Dying with Dignity. On March 22, the Committee made 24 recommendations to the Minister of Health and Social Services as to how end-of-life care should be improved in Quebec. Among the recommendations, the CHPCA applauds those focused on the further development of hospice palliative care in Quebec; these include improved training for hospice palliative care professionals, earlier access to hospice palliative care for patients, and the implementation of end-of-life care policy in Quebec.
The CHPCA commends the Committee for their efforts and inclusion of recommendations around improving the quality and delivery of hospice palliative care in Quebec. The Commission conducted extensive hearings with hospice palliative care professionals across Quebec to ensure that all viewpoints were equally represented. The resulting report is a strong first step towards implementing standardized hospice palliative care in Quebec so that all patients may have the highest quality of life and quality of dying
Among the recommendations however, were several advocating for the legalization of physician assisted death**, should the patient request. “Many of the Committee’s recommendations show a positive future for hospice palliative care in Quebec,” stated Sharon Baxter, Executive Director of the CHPCA, “however we need to have a clear distinction between hospice palliative care and physician assisted death. Physician assisted death should not be considered a part of or linked to hospice palliative care ideology or practice.”
“. . .Physician assisted death should not be considered a part of or linked to hospice palliative care ideology or practice.” . . . Should a legislation allowing physician assisted death be passed by the Quebec government in the future, the dedicated and committed personnel who work in hospice palliative care should not be expected to participate in this practice.
The CHPCA believes that hospice palliative care is about ensuring a good death for all Canadians through an interdisciplinary approach that includes pain and symptom management, psychological support, spiritual care, bereavement care, and much more to address the suffering of patients and their families.
Should a legislation allowing physician assisted death be passed by the Quebec government in the future, the dedicated and committed personnel who work in hospice palliative care should not be expected to participate in this practice.
Right now, only 16% of Canadians who die have access to or receive hospice palliative, and quality end-of-life care services. The CHPCA wants to ensure that all Canadians have the highest quality of life as they live with a life limiting or terminal illness. Too many Canadians die with suffering that could be addressed in a more effective manner. The CHPCA believes that we need to have a greater focus on quality end of life care and the right to high quality hospice palliative care at the end of life for all Canadians as we enter into the debate around the contentious issue of physician assisted death.
**incorporates both terms “euthanasia” and “assisted suicide”
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For further information, please contact:
Vanessa Sherry Communications Officer Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association E-mail: vsherry@bruyere.org Phone: 613-241-3663 ext: 229
The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association — the national voice for hospice palliative care in Canada – is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in care for persons approaching death so that the burdens of suffering, loneliness and grief are lessened. The CHPCA operates in close partnership with other national organizations and continues to work to ensure that all Canadians, regardless of where they may live, have equal access to quality hospice palliative care services for themselves and their family.
Quebec euthanasia proposal challenged as unbalanced
Margaret Somerville, founding Director of McGill University’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, criticizes the report of Quebec’s Select Committee on Dying with Dignity on the ground that it is unbalanced “and reads rather like a pro-euthanasia manifesto.” She notes that two thirds of the submissions received by the Committee opposed euthansia. [The Gazette]
Compulsory referral for euthanasia recommended in Quebec
The Select Committee on Dying with Dignity has tabled a report unanimously recommending “relevant legislation be amended” to allow euthanasia in the province of Quebec. The Committee also recommends that objecting physicians be forced to refer for the procedure. According to the recommendations, conscientious objections by nurses will be allowed, but it does not indicate whether or not they should be compelled to participate in or facilitate the procedure by referral or other means. The Committee recommends that codes of ethics for physicians and nurses be amended accordingly. The recommendations are available in English, but the report will not be available in English until May [Quebec National Assembly].
A correction and qualifications
Letter to the Editor
The BC Catholic
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
20 February, 2012
A correction and some qualifications are in order with respect to the article by Deborah Gyapong about the contraception insurance controversy in the United States (“A Canadian debate over contraception is unlikely,” BC Catholic, 20 February, 2012).
In the first place, Mr. Roche of the Catholic Health Association of Canada is mistaken in his assertion that Catholic hospitals in Canada cannot be compelled to do things contrary to Catholic teaching. In 2006, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, operated by the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Association, decided to stop doing contraceptive sterilizations. Public protests resulted, and a woman denied a tubal ligation filed a human rights complaint. In June, 2007, St. Elizabeth’s was transferred to the Saskatoon Health Region and re-named the Humboldt District Hospital. Three months later, the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corporation agreed to pay almost $8,000.00 to the complainant in the human rights action to settle the case.1 It would be most unwise to think that this kind of thing could not happen again.
Concerning the situation in the United States, it is true that the Catholic bishops, in a remarkable display of unanimity, have been vocal in protesting the demand to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives and potentially embryocidal or abortifacient drugs or devices. Many of them have said that they will refuse to comply with the law. It does not appear that they share Mr. Roche’s view that an emphasis on Catholic identity may be counterproductive with respect to the mission of Catholic health care. Nor do they seem to think that Catholic identity and Catholic mission are in conflict with each other, though they may well be in conflict with dominant social norms – as the example of what used to be St. Elizabeth’s Hospital demonstrates.
The prominence of the Catholic response notwithstanding, this is not a ‘Catholic’ issue. Strong protests have also been made by Jewish groups, Southern Baptists, Lutherans and Evangelical Christians. Colorado Christian University, a non-Catholic institution, filed suit months ago against the U.S. federal government because of this mandate.2 Two more lawsuits have just been filed by Southern Baptist and Reformed Presbyterian colleges.3 And former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee. recently declared that the response to the Obama administration’s mandate reminded him of President John F. Kennedy’s statement to the people of Berlin after the erection of the Berlin Wall: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner). Huckabee, a Baptist , said, “In many ways, thanks to President Obama, we’re all Catholics now.”4
Testifying before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik warned that “not only does the new regulation threaten religious liberty in the narrow sense, in requiring Catholic communities to violate their religious tenets, but also the administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious.”5
So this is not a ‘Catholic’ issue. Nor is it about women, or health, or birth control or contraception, as Dr. Laura Champion told the same committee. As the Director of Health Services at Calvin College in Michigan, she explained that the College has no objections to contraception, but she was emphatic that the morning after pill is not the same as cancer screening or vaccinations. “Pregnancy is not a disease,” she said. “This is a premise that I reject both religiously and medically.”6
Finally, the BC Catholic story states that the Catholic Health Association of the United States “decided on ‘a cautious acceptance’ of the compromise.” However, the actual wording of the newly published regulation is exactly the same as the wording that launched the firestorm of protest in late January.7 The administration’s promises have no legal significance, and, in any case, will not be fulfilled before the November presidential election. The description of the scheme as a ‘compromise’ thus seems premature.
Notes:
1. CBC News, 13 September, 2007, “Woman given settlement after being denied tubal ligation.”(Accessed 2012-02-20)
2. To see a graphic illustration of the resistance to the HHS mandate, see the interactive map.
3. Alliance Defence Fund news releases, 20 February, 2012 : “ADF, Louisianna College challenge Obama Mandate“; “ADF, Geneva College to reveal lawsuit against Obama mandate Tuesday” (Accessed 2012-02-20)
4 “Mike Huckabee’s Full Speech at CPAC 2012.” ABC News, 10 February, 2012 (Accessed 2012-02-20)
5. Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience? US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,16 February, 2012: Testimony of Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
6. Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience? US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,16 February, 2012: Testimony of Laura Champion, MD.
7. PART 147—Health Insurance Reform Requirements for the Group and Individual Health Insurance Markets § 147.130 Coverage of preventive health services.