Physicians’ Alliance Newsletter, July 2018

Brave New World?

According to Health Canada’s recently released Third Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, approximately 1,500 people died through active physician administered euthanasia in the six month period from July 1st to December 31^st, 2017. This number, with reference to our common experience, is both small enough to be easily comprehensible, and large enough to command respect: a thousand dollars are a lot of dollars; a thousand kilometres are a lot of kilometres; and a thousand lives are a lot of lives.

There is a special solemnity we feel at the sight of any mortality statistics. We subconsciously feel the finality, the quiet and the weight, of the endless rows of burial plots where slumber those who have preceded us. But in this case, there is also a surreal dimension to our experience: because the defining characteristic of our acceptance lies in the inevitability of death. We are used to struggling, at great cost, with any sort of fatal contingency; we are used to denunciation and outrage at any sort of homicide; as doctors, especially, we are dedicated to combat the one and to refuse the other. We accept death, then, because we must. But only because we must. Continue reading…

Make euthanasia unimaginable.

Sincerely,

Catherine Ferrier
President

Doctor’s voices

Medical Euthanasia in Canada: Current Issues and Potential Future Expansion by Mark S. Komrad, MD (Jun 29, 2018). Dr Mark Komrad explores the relatively new Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) law in Canada, and how it may be on the verge of opening medical euthanasia to certain qualified psychiatric patients, similar to practices in Belgium and The Netherlands.
Towards a lack of palliative care physicians in Quebec: Dr. Marjorie Tremblay and Dr. Elisa Pucella are devoted physicians who come face to face with death every day. They have both expressed grave concern about the situation of palliative care throughout Quebec due to the lack of physicians to provide quality palliative care.
Protecting Conscientious Objection Protects Patients and the Medical Profession. Karol F Boschung, an MD candidate (class of 2021) in the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia, writes an articulate and emphatic response to Dr. Eric Brown’s letter “RE: Doctors don’t need to refer for MAiD”.
12 Myths About Assisted Suicide and Medical Aid In Dying by Ronald W. Pies, MD and Annette Hanson, MD. In an age of “alternative facts,” it’s hard to sort out myth from reality when it comes to so-called “medical aid in dying” (MAiD), also called physician-assisted suicide (PAS).

If you have an article, letter or interview relevant to our work published in any media, please let us know at info@collectifmedecins.org.

Call to action

The Collège des médecins du Québec has called for nominations for the Board of Directors. The election period for the Greater Montréal area is currently underway and will end on October 3, 2018. Candidacy applications must be sent by email to elections@cmq.orgno later than Friday, August 31, 2018 at 4:00 pm.
We strongly encourage you to participate by voting and/or by submitting your candidacy. This is an excellent opportunity for physicians opposed to euthanasia and in favour of high quality palliative care to become involved in shaping policy.

In view of the upcoming Quebec general election scheduled for October 1, 2018, we invite you, to join forces with many concerned groups and citizens to express to politicians and the media our deep concern about the woeful state of Palliative Care in Québec. We urge you to consider writing to your Member of the National Assembly (MNA) and to a major or local newspaper or radio and television stations, expressing your concerns. Please click for more details.

In the news

Would you let an algorithm decide the moment of your death? (Accepterez-vous de laisser un algorithme décider du moment de votre mort ?) by Michael ALBO, Data Science Institute (July 12, 2018). What if an algorithm could accurately evaluate the time you have left to live on this earth? This is not the pitch of an upcoming sci-fiction film but one of the scientific advances from Google’s “Medical Brain” project that will inevitably pose ethical and philosophical questions in the coming years.
Advocates against assisted suicide show that love endures and gives life by Kathryn Jean Lopez (July 16, 2018). A man demonstrates remarkable courage in the face of death — and his wife (Kristen Hanson) in the wake of it. At a recent talk at the Napa Institute in California, the fruits of Kristen’s courage were clear: Love gives people hope.

From the trenches

The cultural failing of assisted suicide (June 18, 2018). A thought-provoking reflection by Dr. Ferrukh Faruqui. Two years after legalization, the law has complicated the moral dimensions of the act and raised the stakes.

Resources

The CCRL Files Submission to Health Canada’s Public Consultation on Palliative Care by CCRL, Jul 19, 2018. The CCRL calls for the availability of informed options on palliative care as a treatment option for the frail elderly, the terminally ill, or others in vulnerable circumstances.
Family Perspectives: Death and Dying in Canada (May, 2018). Death is a natural part of life, but many Canadians are hesitant to have essential conversations about the end of their lives. Family Perspectives: Death and Dying in Canada is a conversation catalyst from the Vanier Institute of the Family intended to spark dialogue in homes, workplaces and communities across the country by exploring death and dying.
“We have lost the meaning of death,” (On a perdu le sens de la mort) laments Lucetta Scaraffia in L’Osservatore Romano (July 13, 2018) if a shopping centre is more beautiful than a hospital.

Events

22nd International Congress on Palliative Care. October 2-5, 2018. Presented by Palliative Care McGill, McGill University. Registrations are currently underway. Early bird rates are available until August 1st, 2018.

In the literature

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, August 2018 Volume 56, Issue 2, Pages e1–e2. Dignity or Dignities? When a Concept Has Multiple Meanings, by Emilie Allard, Alain Legault, and Christine Genest. Published online: April 27, 2018.
CMAJ, July 16, 2018 Vol. 190, Issue 28 E861. Physicians who object to medical assistance in dying by W. Joseph Askin and Thomas Bouchard.

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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