Citizens for Patient Safety

I am extremely concerned by the news that the Fraser Health Authority may be required to offer MAiD in their hospices and palliative care units. How absurd and sad is it that the very same doctors and nurses entrusted to care for those most vulnerable will know be the very ones hastening their death. Assisted suicide is not dying with dignity. Offering companionship, support, pain relief and witnessing the sacred time of death is what people are hoping when they seek hospice and palliative care. Please consider the great burden this decision will have on health care workers who will be forced to support or refer MAiD. Can't we offer something better than this in Canada? We all recognize what an incredible loss and injustice it is when someone takes their own life through suicide. How can we legalize and ask good physicians to do this very same thing in the name of human rights and freedom? No matter how you name it or what safeguards will attempt to monitor this, MAiD is still murder.

I am a registered nurse who has worked in palliative care for many years. The dying process is a very sacred event when life is respected and symptoms carefully managed. Everyone, patient and family, and staff too, win when dignity for the individual is maintained by honouring life. Mary McElhone, R.N.

I am very concerned that doctor assisted dying in the hospitals would mean that people would be encouraged to choose to die instead of live their dying well and naturally. I am further concerned that elderly or intellectually disabled people would be pressured to consent to this option if it were made available. Access to palliative care aligns with the mission of hospitals and should be emphasized. If doctor assisted dying is an option I'm afraid that people would choose death over living in order not to be a 'burden' to the system, their family etc. Let's invest our resources into palliative care instead of setting up this system in our hospitals.

I am very much against this Bill that is being or has been passed. When has human life become so dispensable ? Only God has the right to take ones life at his appointed time.I would not place my loved one in a facility that offered MAID!!!. When 97% of the citizens of Fraser Health do not want MAID , you should listen to their voices. Please do not put this into Hospices and Palliative Care areas, and I do not think that this is something that should even be considered or placed anywhere . As stated very well in the above letter,( facilities will become killing centres) I think this will soon become a method of culling the older generations as the population is ageing. It is called the slippery slope and may the powers that be hear the voices of their constituents and have the wisdom to chose the right path. Thelma Inkster

Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller has signed the petition and expressed his concerns in a letter to the Fraser Health Authority: http://rcav.org/l-fraser-health. Please share this petition and your concerns with others.

As we wheeled my wife over to Hospice from the Langley Hospital she turned to me and said: "Murray, I need your help; I want to live my dying well." And with the wonderful assistance of Hospice, the support of family and friends and her deep faith in God she did that and I am grateful beyond words for that. We had been together for 46 years and hospice provided exceptional care and service. Since then, I have organized an annual art show bringing together an exceptional group of artists from Western Canada to put on an annual fundraising show at the Thunderbird Show Park in Langley. We are endeavouring to raise $100,000 dollars in support of Hospice. We are approximately half way there. I believe including Assisted Suicide to the services provided would radically change the nature of Hospice and had that been offered at the time of her death we would have chosen not to go to Hospice and I would have to reconsider my continued my support of that organization which has meant so much to me. I believe this would irreparably alter nature of the organization despite arguments to the contrary. Murray Phillips, M.A. M. Div.

The majority of women having abortions go to a separate clinic for the procedure and even those done in a hospital are never placed on a maternity unit. Why? The reasons are obvious. For similar and obvious reasons, MAiD in hospices and palliative facilities are not compatible. Please do not destroy the trust, safety and comfort of our end-of-life patients and their families. Not only will the statistically proven 97% of people that do not want MAiD be hesitant or avoid coming to MAiD providing facilities altogether, they will most certainly delay accessing or reaching out for Palliative Care. As Daryl Plecas the parliamentary secretary to the Health Minister said in a Vancouver Sun article published Sept 20th, regarding seniors care; “…if we are going to establish….lets make sure we get it right.” Likewise it can’t be stressed strongly enough in this case for the end-of-life patients …”lets make sure we get it right.” Lets make sure we do not destroy a necessary and presently excellent palliative program. To get it right, why not give voice and heed the citizens of Fraser Health, the 97% that do not want MAiD. Please do not place this provision for MAiD in the hospices and palliative care areas!

My Mother is in a small, private Intermediate care facility. She would not be there if the same facility offered MAiD. I and my family would not trust the facility at all. Adding Assisted Suicide to the services provided in care facilities would be an abuse of these facilities for the reasons given in the letter above. Over time they would begin to empty of those that really need care and become killing centers. Please do not do this. Henry Schouten. Chilliwack, BC

I am involved in the care of a relative in a Hospice facility in BC .This is a small unit where staff and family members of other dying residents with limited time interact and support eachother. It would be devestating to be faced with the deliberate intent to end a life while promoting wonderful palliative patient care and safety.These centers would simply become killing centers and both famiies and patients support would be compromised and negated.Palliative care units must not be pressured to include such devaluing of support and present and future residents must be informed before admission that deliberate killing steps are not part of paliative services. Cecilia von Dehn Ret RN SCM. Vancouver BC