The choice for medically-assisted death is a deeply personal one

By Letter to the Editor on May 8, 2019.

Re: “Celebrating death in Canada?” May 4

I assure Mr. Parkinson that no one is, to use his word, “celebrating” the medically-assisted deaths of the 6,749 Canadians as reported in the April 26, 2019 edition of the Medicine Hat News. I ask those who either did not read or might not recall the details of that News article to review it. Do you see anything celebratory in that article? I do not. The article reports facts, albeit sad ones. I see no justification for Mr. Parkinson’s hyperbole.

Of more concern to me was that Mr. Parkinson’s words denigrated our health-care system, and did so three different ways when he wrote that the deaths were “…dealt out by the health industry…” and that therefore “Hitler must be laughing his head off.”

Firstly, our health-care system is not an “industry.” Our doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals, together with support staff and administrators give us access to health care which is the envy of nearly every other person on the planet. That health care is tailored to each individual and includes physician-assisted suicide if a patient requests it and meets the criteria. Canning beans is an example of an industry.

Secondly, the deaths Mr. Parkinson complained about were not “dealt out” by our health-care professionals to anyone. More hyperbole from Mr. Parkinson, this time implying victimization of hapless people. The truth is that there is compassionate and caring assistance now lawfully available through our health-care system for those whose misfortune is extreme, such that they choose to end their own life. Suicide is not now and has never been illegal in Canada, therefore Mr. Parkinson must only be complaining of the method of carrying it out. Would he prefer that the wretched and truly unfortunate instead use guns, or knives, or poison, or perhaps step in front of a train, or off a cliff?

Thirdly, it is both contemptuous of our health-care system, and, also, contemptible to equate lawful physician-assisted suicide with Nazi genocide. The multiple millions of Hitler’s murder victims had no choice in their deaths, Mr. Parkinson, that is why it is called mass murder.

If an adult is competent and faces only incurable and intolerable suffering, it is an issue of autonomy, and of dignity, and it is a matter only for that person and their doctor.

To illustrate why we must respect each individual’s right to make what certainly is the most personal of all choices, I respectfully borrow words from a lady named Gloria Taylor. She wanted to be able to choose physician-assisted suicide. That choice was not legally available to her. She suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is incurable, and which would certainly end in a horrible death. I can do no better than to quote her words, which the full panel of nine Supreme Court of Canada Justices adopted as part of their unanimous judgment ending the Criminal Code ban on assisted suicide in 2015. Ms. Taylor said she did not want to “live in a bedridden state, stripped of dignity and independence,” nor did she want an “ugly death.” She further said “I do not want my mode of death to be traumatic for my family members. I want the legal right to die peacefully, and at the time of my choosing, in the embrace of my family and friends. What I fear is a death that negates, as opposed to concludes my life.” Elegantly and poignantly stated by someone who truly knew.

Lastly, I suggest that the right which Mr. Parkinson seems to find repugnant is an example of the kind of rights we have, in large part, because of those heroes who fought and defeated the Nazis.

Gregory R. Côté

Medicine Hat

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