Physician Assisted Suicide: A Peaceful Departure From Life
Physician assisted suicide has long been used in the medical field as a way of ending the prolonged suffering of terminally ill adults in Canada. The process is possible for a patient after a long certification process that confirms a poor quality of life. Many question the idea of physician assisted suicide, mainly for philosophical and cultural reasons, and it remains controversial. However, this procedure brings several benefits to both the suffering patients and their loved ones:
Why It Can Benefit Patients and Their Families
- Relief from pain and poor quality of life
Many terminally ill patients and some with other illnesses have a poor quality of life due to constant pain and difficulty carrying out basic functions.
- Helps with the grieving process for loved ones
Assisted dying provides a definite end date to the patient’s suffering. This certainty may help family, friends, and loved ones emotionally as they begin the complex grieving process.
Physician assisted suicide should be accessible to all patients in Canada that request it and prove themselves to be a sound of mind adult. The legalization of medically assisted death is still much too restrictive, in respect to foreseeability of natural death. In a life or death situation, the patient is the only one that can best understand their options and the most optimal way to proceed.
Struggle for Legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide: Sue Rodriguez
Physician assisted suicide was long at odds with the legal system. Sue Rodriguez, a Canadian right-to-die activist, was a key figure who fought for the right to die with dignity. The 42-year-old suffered from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle movements as well as other symptoms. People with ALS ultimately lose the ability to breathe without a respirator, eat without a gastrostomy, or move without assistance. Ultimately, they will be bed ridden. Sue Rodriguez wished to die in the hands of a professional. She applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia asking that Section 241 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits assisted suicide, be considered invalid as it infringes on her fundamental human rights under Section 7, 12 and 15 of the Charter. In the end, she committed suicide with a morphine mixture when she had lost almost all movement in her body and died alongside her husband. Her story touched many others and she paved the way for physician assisted dying to become legal.
Bill-C 14 & Legalization
On June 17th, 2016, Bill-C 14 enabled physician assisted dying to become law. Since then, 1300 Canadians have chosen this option to pass on. One such patient was Rob Rollins. Like Sue Rodriguez, he was also a terminally ill Canadian. Rollins had a malignant carcinoma in his throat and bowels. He went through many rounds of chemotherapy in hopes of being free of the illness, but the cancer continued to grow. As a result, he needed a complete throat dissection to eliminate the possibility of the tumors growing or returning and had to depend on a feeding tube. Rollins was then considered terminally ill and was given a prognosis of 6 months to live. He had a physician assisted suicide alongside his husband, best friend, and brother in his bedroom. The physician injected a lethal medication into Rollins’ IV tube which allowed him to pass peacefully.
Rob Rollins’s story shows how physician assisted suicide can give the patient control over their quality of life and benefit both them as well as their loved ones. Rodriguez should have been given this same opportunity. The screening process to be eligible for physician assisted suicide is extensive, mental health problems is the first factor that is checked. Rodriguez took her own life because she was in tremendous pain and believed death was the only answer to end it, she preferred it to be in a professional’s hands and desired for her death to be handled with care. Physicians have taken an oath to never deny care to a patient and in the cases of Rollins and Rodriguez, that care was physcian assisted suicide because of the poor quality of life both people were going through. There comes a time when having an illness where death is not scary anymore, in fact, it begins feeling like the only thing that will provide peace. Quality of life is one of the main driving factors for a patient to decide to choose physician assisted suicde, as a result of this, only the patient can determine if the life they lived alongside the illness is worth continuing. To conclude, a patient’s quality of life is a major deciding factor on whether or not they decide to go ahead with physician assisted dying. Thus, no other party can decide for the patient if they would want to live a life that is not valuable to them. Once again proving that the patient can best comprehend their options in a life or death situation.
Death in and of itself is a scary endeavor, particularly when it comes unexpectedly. Physician assisted suicide takes away the shock factor and as a result, allows for less traumatic grief as a precursercer to the death of a loved one. Physician assisted dying has been proven to allow for fewer feelings of grief as an aftermath, in comparison to someone who has died naturally. It greatly reduces the unnecessary pain and suffering of loved ones during and after the procedure. This notion is recognizable in the case of Marissa Nini who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer. Nini had tried extensive chemotherapy for several years and as a repercussion, was suffering through a sizable amount of pain. Her doctors could not find any substitutes to relieve it without causing her additional symptoms, Ninithen decided to pursue assisted suicide and was met with comfort and endless love from her family and loved ones. During Marissa’s care, she would rarely have visitors over because of the considerable amount of pain she was enduring. However, she was delighted to have her family and friends there to experience and celebrate her final moments with her. Months after Marissa’s death, her family is healing well and believe she made the right decision for everyone involved . Much like Marissa Nini, Noreen Campbell experienced her death alongside her loved ones. Noreen Campbell suffered from aggressive malignant oral cancer that traveled to her lungs giving her COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). In many cases regarding physician assisted suicide, surviving spouses experience greif that they can handle in a healthy way. They are mere witnesses to the suffering endured by the patient and in the case of Clifford Campbell, Noreen’s spouse, he watched Noreen in her final moments feeling completely blissful. Clifford had witnessed Noreen cough up blood for hours, however, always made time for her family. On the day of the procedure, Clifford had conflicted feelings of his wife’s departure but understood that this is what she wanted because he had months to prepare for her death. Noreen died in her farm on her favorite chair alongside all her family and friends. Her family was prepared and ready for her departure from life, this allowed them to grieve knowing that she was happy in her final moments. In essence, loved ones of patients who decided to pass with a physician assisted death experience less post-traumatic grief in comparison to patients who have died naturally. This could be because loved ones are better able to cope with the trauma because they had an uncommon opportunity to say their goodbyes when the patient is fully capable of responding. In the case of Marissa Nini, her daughter was by her side the entirety of the dying process,hence,her daughter could truly grasp how much her mother needed for the pain to be over because in her final moments, it had subsided and she was finally at peace. This allowed for a better healing process after the fact, Nini’s daughter understood where her mother was coming from and could continue living life without the grief of her death weighing her down. In addition to that,Friends and family are also much more prepared for the death because of the long periods of time they have had knowing the day would come to accept the decision. In regards to Noreen Campbell, her entire family had the chance to say their goodbyes together, this allowed them to be prepared for her passing as well as granting them the opportunity to be there when she died, instead of it being a surprise. Therefore, the main benefit is the interaction between the patient and their loved ones once the patient has chosen to move forward with physician assisted suicide.
The legalization of physician assisted dying has sparked intense conversation in Canada. The most ferocious opposers to the procedure are of the religious sort, more specifically the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. They were very much against the passing of the law as well as bill C-14, arguing that the approval of the law is merely drawing the curtains over their inability to truly care for the suffering. The Council of Canadians with Disabilities also feel that the legalization of the law sends the wrong message to Canadians, that the lives of the terminally ill are lives not worth living. Alternatively, they advocate for better palliative care and more investments for those who need support to improve their quality of life. In contrast, many Canadians strongly reject the conception that the legalization of the law belittles the lives of the ill in any way. Physicians are very careful when handling the vulnerability of patients, they present the option of medically assisted death without any pressurization. Loved ones experience a sense of relief, even contentment, knowing that the patient passed peacefully and had control over how they died, the way they desired. There are always controversies where the medical field is concerned, people feel strongly about varying opinions. The one thing that all parties can agree on is the fact that each person in Canada has the fundamental human right to select or forgo any treatments that they wish.
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Sources:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182951#controversy
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/medically-assisted-dying-canadians-rob-rollins-1.4056700
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-family-medically-assisted-death-experience-1.4190358
