Let higher power decide the end
Editor:
I have been reading the various letters on the recent ruling that struck down Canada’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide.
First of all, I do not believe a judge should be changing laws made by Parliament.
It is not a simple black-and-white decision. There are many complications.
Doctors are to do no harm; they train to save lives, not end them.
However, with this law they would now be a party in assisting someone to die — and who pays the doctor’s salary?
We do, so we all become a party to it.
Patients become vulnerable to being subtly influenced or pressured to take this step for a variety of reasons, including inheritance.
Most insurance plans do not cover suicide, so any assisted suicide should be excluded, meaning life-insurance plans etc. are null and void — family members wanting “their share” may not be happy with that.
With all advances made in medical care and procedures, a patient can effectively have their pain managed very well.
I can attest to that from personal experience with family members in their end-of-life issues.
We also now have a valuable and effective hospice facility to help.
Further, it was interesting to read a Canadian Press release regarding this subject.
Gloria Taylor, who was responsible for bringing the issue to the foreground again, said: “When it’s time, it’s God’s will or mine, and I’ll leave it at that.”
It would seem to me that Taylor is speaking with forked tongue.
She is saying when her time comes it will be God’s will not hers. If this is truly her belief and she accepts that, as it seems she does, then why is she pushing for a law to allow assisted suicide.
She sounds like a hypocrite to me.
Perhaps she would be better to find some kind of peaceful acceptance of her condition, let her medical team do their work at managing her pain and trust in a higher power who will know when it’s time.
Deveen Martin
Kamloops
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