Dr Balfour Mount was interviewed for the CBC radio show The Current. The episode Checking-In: The Triple Package, Cancer Research and How stress levels affect traders aired on February 20 2014. Dr Mount’s interview begins approximately 15:10 into the half hour show.
As the founder of palliative care in North America, he knows what he’s talking about when he discusses caring for people at end of life. As a cancer patient, he also has a very personal perspective on the issue. As he says in the interview, he is not talking from an “ivory tower”.
A statement that really struck me was that Dr. Mount says Bill 52 confuses the language. He points out that the Bill uses the term “medical aid in dying”. Dr. Mount says that he hopes everyone would favour medical aid in dying, that that is the goal of palliative care medicine. However, medical aid in dying should not, as the Bill defines it, be the intentional killing of patients. Patients should be accompanied and supported by their physicians until the end. Their deaths should not be intentionally hastened.
This confusion was illustrated by the Ipsos survey released in September that says only 30% of the population actually understand what is meant by “medical aid in dying” in the context of the Bill.
Dr. Mount also said that he found irony in our current situation. He said:
“[It is] ironic that it was the progressive atmosphere of Quebec at the time that enabled and supported us in developing the first palliative care programme. So what an irony that it’s here now 40 years later that this [euthanasia] comes up yet again.”
The government would like to believe they are being progressive by legalizing euthanasia. What would be truly progressive would be to implement a system where every resident has full access to quality palliative care, regardless of where they are in Quebec.
