Adrian Dix: Medical assistance in dying: Compassion and balance put patients first

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Medical assistance in dying: Compassion and balance put patients first

Whether it’s due to the advancing age and changing health of our parents, or the realization that we’re approaching certain milestones, at key points along the way, many of us talk about wills and advanced healthcare planning for when our good health turns, or our lives are near their end.

The federal law acknowledges the profound and complex issues involved in this patient end-of-life choice, giving primacy to the suffering and foreseeable death of an end-of-life patient. Last fall, the federal government accepted a provincial court ruling that language limiting access to MAiD is unconstitutional, and committed to changing the MAiD law for the whole country. It has confirmed that its update of the MAiD law will expand eligibility for MAiD.

It is a choice that many individuals in Canada and in B.C are making. Between 2016 and November 2019, about 3,000 British Columbians made the choice to have medical assistance in dying, the majority of those choosing to do so at home. For many of those British Columbians facing end-of-life situations, “home” may well be a residential care facility or a hospice, and these patients also have access to MAiD.

Where we are today in B.C. is in no small way due to the care the former B.C. Liberal government took with converting federal law to B.C. practice. Former Health Minister Terry Lake introduced MAiD in a sensible and sound fashion, and spoke sensitively to what is for us all, the most solemn choice we can make in our healthcare. Putting the interest of the patient first is at the heart of B.C.’s policy.• Medical assistance in dying is a legal, end-of-life choice.

• If a hospice or care facility’s beds are more than 50 per cent publicly funded, they must allow access to MAiD in their facility. If a hospice or healthcare facility has fewer than 50 per cent of their beds funded by a health authority, they do not have to provide access to the service on site, but must inform patients about MAiD and the role of health authorities in care coordination to assist the requesting patient with access to MAiD.

 

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adriandix Patient choice, including MAiD, is compassionate.

adriandix This is what is needed. Save the hospice. Save the funding. Give the community choice. Don’t make patients choose between excellent palliative care and having MAiD. Patients need both. deltahospice MAiD dontmovepatients

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