Catholic Register
The agency responsible for expanding Ontario’s network of hospice care wants hospice patients to have the option of assisted suicide, even if most hospices and the majority of doctors oppose it.
“The OPCN (Ontario Palliative Care Network) promotes early and equitable access to hospice palliative care for all patients with a life-limiting illness, including individuals who have requested medical assistance in dying,” a spokesperson for the Ontario Palliative Care Network told The Catholic Register in an email.
The provincially-funded OPCN, a sub-agency of Cancer Care Ontario, “recognizes that there may be an intersection between palliative care and medical assistance in dying (MAID). Both medical assistance in dying and palliative care are health care services that exist within the health care system,” wrote Cancer Care Ontario communications advisor Jayani Perera. “However, the focus and mandate of the Ontario Palliative Care Network is advancing palliative care in the province.”
A year into legalized killing in Canada, the big question is how palliative care and hospice beds will be expanded, said bioethicist Bob Parke. Will governments fund hospices that refuse to perform or refer for assisted dying? . . [Full text]