Newsletter, October 2017

Dear friends,

“Give the Devil his due”, states a familiar proverb.

And in some ways, our adversaries do deserve to be held up in example. With a small core of dedicated activists, through good years and bad, they kept up their pro-euthanasia agitation. For half a century (until the mid forties), they openly promoted euthanasia, not only as a benefit for the sick or disabled, but also as a sort of social hygiene, cutting away the dead wood, the costly dependents, the useless mouths. They had at least, at that time, the virtue of honesty.

And the depth of such harsh prejudice is reflected in the fact that support for the euthanasia program eventually reached over thirty percent, in both the USA and the UK.  It is, however, to the honour of our society that the critical democratic threshold was never crossed… (continue reading editorial comment)

Sincerely,

Catherine Ferrier
President

At the beginning of October, the Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia made a submission to the CCA Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying. The panel was convened at the request of the Canadian Minister of Health at the time, Jane Philpott, and the Canadian Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to examine the possibility of expanding euthanasia access to three situations: requests by “mature minors”, advance requests, and requests where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.

Our submission >>

The panel website >>

Petition for medical practice in CHSLDs in Quebec
Efforts by family doctors to register 85% of the Quebec population, in line with the perspective of Bill 20, had the undesirable effect of stripping medical care provided to patients in CHSLDs. Family physicians working in this care environment are not allowed to include this vulnerable population among the number of their registered patients. We invite you to read and sign the petition (French only) accessible here >>

• The Commission on end-of-life care (La Commission sur les soins de fin de vie) releases its second report showing that the number of cases of euthanasia in Quebec rose by 282% in 2016-2017 compared to the previous year. A direct link to the published report can be found here >>
• In the first year of legal euthanasia in Canada there were roughly 2000 fatal procedures performed, causing .09% of all deaths. These are small percentages, but distressingly large absolute numbers, a sudden pestilent irruption into the medical space which it is our chosen task to contain, reduce and eliminate.
• The Canadian Pediatric Society position statement takes no position. Why is everyone afraid to say “Don’t do it?”
• U.S. Congress introduces a bipartisan concurrent resolution on the Dangers of Legalizing Assisted Suicide
• France: The “social death” of the elderly. According to a study published by the Association of the Little Brothers of the Poor, 300,000 elderly people in France, or 2% of those over 60, experience an isolation that borders on ‘social death’.
• US Supreme Court upholds conviction of assisted suicide group in Minnesota death
• UK High Court rejected assisted suicide, also rejecting Canada’s Supreme Court euthanasia decision.
• No accelerated trial for contesting the law on medical aid in dying in British Columbia.
• Post-legalization, there must be no further tolerance for informal “stealth” euthanasia. A Winnipeg woman maintains her husband was removed from a ventilator without consent.
• The Council for the Protection of Patients calls for a law on long-term care: “As a society, we should stop accepting that medical aid in dying procedures are more generous than those that those that allow resident people to live with dignity.”
• The Dutch Public prosecutor has decided to investigate the euthanasia of a woman with dementia. This is the first time since euthanasia was made legal in 2002 that there has been a formal criminal probe into a doctor’s actions. This is obviously very relevant to us as the Canadian government considers allowing euthanasia in similar situations.

According to a survey conducted by the Université de Sherbrooke, in Quebec, 91 percent of the family caregivers surveyed would agree to extending euthanasia to terminally ill people who are incapable of decision-making. Aubert Martin comments >>

Taylor Hyatt, Disability bias killed UK teen

Distinguishing between sadness and depression at the end of life.

I’m dying of brain cancer. I prepared to end my life. Then I kept living.

Canada’s Summer of Discontent: Euthanasia practitioners warn of nationwide “crisis”

The SFAP (France) wants a society that “cares for the weak” rather than “individual choice”.

Justifying euthanasia by proposing subsequent organ donation: doubly cruel.

Reflections on the stresses and burdens of euthanizing patients

Infographic from iPanel.ca on shifting care to a palliative approach.

BMJ Open. 2011:  A survey on self-assessed well-being in a cohort of chronic locked-in syndrome patients: happy majority, miserable minority

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. July 28, 2017: Disparities in Treatment of Older Adults with Suicide Risk in the Emergency Department. Chart review. Significantly fewer suicidal older adult patients who were discharged home received a mental health evaluation when compared to similar younger adults.

Journal of Law and the Biosciences. September 28, 2017. Navigating the new era of assisted suicide and execution drugs. “The pervasive belief that these, or any, noxious drugs are guaranteed to provide for a peaceful and painless death must be dispelled; modern medicine cannot yet achieve this.”

BMJ Open. September 29, 2017. Understanding patients’ experiences of the wish to hasten death: an updated and expanded systematic review and meta-ethnography. Systematic review of studies examining the experience of patient expression of a wish to hasten death (8 countries). “[A wish to hasten death] emerges as a reaction to physical, psychological, social and existential suffering, all of which impacts on the patient’s sense of self, of dignity and meaning in life.”

The British Journal of Psychiatry. October 2017. When unbearable suffering incites psychiatric patients to request euthanasia: qualitative study. 26 testimonials from psychiatric patients who requested euthanasia were analyzed. Five domains of suffering were identified: medical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal and existential. Hopelessness was confirmed to be an important contributor. “Euthanasia should never be seen (or used) as a means of resolving societal failures.”

The Lancet. October 12, 2017. Alleviating the access abyss in palliative care and the pain relief – an imperative of universal health coverage: the Lancet Commission report.

Geriatric Nursing. October 14, 2017. Geriatric palliative care: Meeting the needs of a growing population. A study looking at records of inpatient palliative care consultations examined for patterns in utilization of palliative care services. Discharge to home was associated with higher odds of readmission whereas discharge to hospice or having a discussion about the goals of care was associated with lower odds of readmission.

If you come across articles that could be of interest to colleagues in the Alliance please send the reference to info@collectifmedecins.org.

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