Editor:
I am saddened by the Supreme Court decision striking down laws against physician-assisted suicide. I cannot understand how they can interpret the right to life, freedom and security of person as justification. It seems they want to replace that right with one protecting the right to death, which ends all freedom and security. There is much talk of death with dignity and autonomy. All persons have innate dignity; it is not dependent on the ability to feed or toilet oneself. Our actions are never completely autonomous; they affect ourselves, our families and friends, but also our community, our country — we are all connected.
What is needed, apart from love and respect throughout life, are national standards of palliative care, funding to implement them and better mental health support services.
Regardless what safeguards are implemented regarding physician assisted suicide, the most vulnerable will lose their security of person. At eighty, secure in the love of my children and confident my doctor will honour my views, I still feel my right to life has been downgraded. No wonder disabled people are alarmed.
This decision will leave many casualties. Doctors, whose vocation is to save lives, will lose the trust of their patients. In Ontario and Saskatchewan the medical associations are planning to demand that doctors “leave their consciences at home” and accede to patients’ requests for help to kill themselves or refer them to someone who will.
An informed conscience is that spark within that guides all our actions. It inspired great leaders like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela to stand against oppression, despite risks to themselves. If doctors are forced to act against their consciences we are in deep trouble. We will lose the best doctors and the quality of people attracted to the medical profession will deteriorate.
Anne Stuart, Sechelt
