Tag: Hospice Palliative Care Ontario

Assisted killing still part of Ontario’s palliative care plan

Catholic Register

Michael Swan

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]

 

York Region health care professionals offer mixed views on doctor-assisted suicide

yorkregion.co

Lisa Queen

Let the soul searching begin.

True, the Supreme Court of Canada delivered a unanimous and historic decision last Friday, striking down the country’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide for consenting and severely ill adult patients. It gave Ottawa a year to enact new legislation.

And true, an opinion poll last fall indicated 84 per cent of Canadians believe “a doctor should be able to help someone end his or her life if the person is a competent adult who is terminally ill, suffering unbearably and repeatedly asks for assistance to die.”

But the issue is striking closer to home for health care providers, who, some day in the very near future, could be asked to help patients end their lives, according to Dr. Cindy So and Jonathan Breslin. . . [Full Text]