
What has troubled me most as Canada moves
to legalize physician-assisted death is the fatalism of those, including
some senators, who argue for the broadest access possible to the
“procedure.”
That’s fine for those who
are certain in their choice of death. But who is ever really sure they
want to die? Given the options available – intolerable physical or
psychological pain, total dependence on others for care – it’s
understandable that some would choose to hasten death. The Supreme Court
correctly decided that consenting adults in this situation should be
able to do so with medical help. But that shouldn’t mean the state
should encourage it.
Yet that is what broadening access to physician-assisted death beyond the parameters outlined in Bill C-14 would amount to. It would send a message to the utterly hopeless or dependent that Canadian society might be better off without them. It would lead many to end their lives prematurely.
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Konrad Yakabuski: "What if death were hastened for a person with fatal diagnosis, and then a cure were found? " |
Another
group of HIV-infected friends and acquaintances was luckier. Despite
what was then considered a fatal diagnosis, they managed to live long
enough to see the introduction of a so-called triple-cocktail drug
therapy in 1996. Almost overnight, they went from being emaciated
skeletons near death to becoming healthy and productive citizens. This
“Lazarus effect” was the result of highly active antiretroviral therapy
that turned HIV infection into a chronic but manageable condition. No
one saw that dramatic development coming, certainly not as quickly as it
did.
I am left wondering how many in
this cohort of survivors, wasting away only months earlier, would have
chosen to end their lives with the help of a physician had it been
legal. That would have been stacking one tragedy on top of another.
Imagine the pain their loved ones would have felt knowing that, had they
held on a bit longer, they would have got their lives back. . . .
Around
the same time that AIDS drug cocktails were enabling the HIV-infected
to snatch life from the jaws of death, a new class of antidepressants
was turning previously hopeless and dysfunctional sufferers of
depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder into happy and
productive members of society. The introduction and popularization of
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Prozac, Paxil and
Zoloft, ended the unbearable suffering of mental illness for millions of
people. Again, it happened almost overnight. Had doctor-assisted death
been available, many depression sufferers wouldn’t have made it that
far. . . .
Let’s go slow on this. In upholding the rights of those
determined to die on their own terms, the Supreme Court may have
inadvertently encouraged some people suffering from grievous and
irremediable conditions to opt for physician-assisted death out of
hopelessness . . . .
Allowing that to happen would be a sad statement on Canadian society.
To view the entire article, go here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/looking-back-on-the-aids-crisis-makes-me-look-at-assisted-dying-differently/article30400605/