Feb 18, 2015


Re: assisted suicide debate

I wish to respond to this past week's letter (Euthanasia, Jule Koch) and a few opinions of my own. I think that my biggest objection was to the writer's comment that "Every day thousands of people face death with courage and are given the highest care as they die". I am not too sure about the rest of the world but I must protest that we here in Ontario and Canada do by no means have good quality care for our dying people ;in fact we fail our seniors and the problems are just going to get worse. I am one of those baby boomers who will start to fill the retirement and nursing homes over the next 10 to 20 years. I am going to make it clear to my family that I do not want to be one of those seniors in a wheelchair; pushed into a spot for the day; moved back to your room; thrown back into your bed and then possibly not having your diaper or other needs attended to because your caregiver is underpaid and is having a bad day. This is by no means saying that all of our health care providers are like this; but there are a lot of situations of elder abuse out there. There is also a lot of elder abuse amongst the seniors themselves that may be suffering from dementia or Alzheimers.

I don't believe that assisted suicide is the answer for this problem; however it could be an alternative if people can now legally make a decision to control their own death. If this is part of your will perhaps; or some other legal instructions that have been done while the person has, as they say been of sound mind. I also believe that those people that are truly suffering from chronic, untreatable pain should be able to control their own life and death.

Death is a very difficult topic for us to discuss. There are many sides and questions to be answered. I am sure that there will be many who will object to this for religious reasons. The doctors and nurses have their own battles to deal with as to how they will react to these situations. There are also always going to be dysfunctional family dynamics whereas the children might take advantage of this new ruling. But this ruling is where we can start to make a law that will address many concerns. Instead of contacting your MP's to stop this bill; let's tell them how we feel and help them make some positive changes.

Nancy Valyear

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