Canada: With passive euthanasia "doctors and hospitals have become kinder and gentler"

Description:

Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba writes of teaching ethics to medical students in 1970: "Doctors used to worry about both the ethics and the legality of hastening a patient's death by 'pulling the plug.' Doctors who pulled the plug on dying patients would become desensitized or even brutalized. Hospitals would become cruel and dehumanized places. Patients would come to think of their doctors as executioners. The fundamental social value of respect for life would be debased. The elderly and the vulnerable would be at high risk of merciless killing.

But experience has shown that what happened was exactly the opposite of what was predicted by the naysayers: Doctors and hospitals have become kinder and gentler, patients' wishes are better respected than previously and society has come to accept the importance of individual autonomy at the end of life."

[For the exact opposite view, see the Margaret Somerville piece below.]

[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

[Note: There is a Notes section and a Coming Up section below.]

Links:

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past advisories on the web (see bottom.)

Coming Up:

  • A New Hampshire House committee plans to make its recommendation Tuesday on the bill to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

  • The Exit International tour continues this week to San Francisco and Anaheim, California

  • LifeNews says the second hour of debate for Bill C-384, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity) is now scheduled for December 2.

Notes:

  • From the FATE website: Assisted Dying: A Good Death or a Choice Too Far? On 13 November 2009, a debate between Dr Libby Wilson, FATE and Wesley J Smith, at the Church of Scotland General Assembly Hall, Edinburgh. Wesley J Smith: An author and lawyer, Wesley is an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and a special consultant for the Centre for Bioethics and Culture.

Source:

Schafer, Arthur. "The great Canadian euthanasia debate". The Globe and Mail. Last updated on Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009 3:00AM EST. <www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-great-canadian-euthanasia-debate/article1353068/>. The Globe and Mail, 444 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2S9, Canada.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • assisted suicide

  • Bill C-384, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity)

  • Canada

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200911095531.
Mailed: Monday, November 9, 2009 14:00:09 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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