Dying with dignity2

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University of Manitoba *

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English

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Jun 8, 2024

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Engl 0930 A03 1 | November 22, 2017 Kasha Webster Medical Assistance in Death – It’s Not Murder, It’s Mercy A new era for Canada’s right to die movement began when Canada passed an assisted dying law in June 2016. The new freedom of choice is the right to medical assistance in death (MAID). Imagine someone you love being in unbearable pain that will only get worse and inevitably end in his or her death. Would you not want to ease their pain? Medical assistance in death should be made available to anyone who is suffering from a chronic or terminal illness: because it ends their suffering, allows them to die with dignity, relieves some of the medical costs, helps families begin the grieving process, and prevents patients from ending their own lives. Where death is reasonably foreseeable, patients should be able to die when, where, and how they want. “In the Patient’s Bill of Rights 6 , patients have the right to be treated for illness and refuse treatment if this is the option they want.” 1 If patients can refuse treatment and sign a do-not- resuscitate form, they should also be allowed to die with dignity when they see fit. Putting a stop to a patient’s suffering brought on by a chronic or terminal illness, and letting them die with dignity would be the ethical thing for a person to do. Another consideration is the family’s grief and acceptance of death. “If the time of death is a known factor then this would give family and friends a chance for reconciliation and to say goodbye, thereby allowing patients to leave in peace with their loved ones by their side.” 2 .Monetary considerations are also a factor. If death is assisted, large personal costs for things like pain medications and hospice care would be alleviated. Palliative care costs would not place such a heavy burden on the taxpayers, and more medical resources would be available for the care of the living. Finally, patients who are in substantial amounts of pain and do not have access to MAID may find other means of death by ending their own lives in a violent manner, potentially traumatizing their loved ones as well as the first responders. 3 The right to MAID
2 | must be freely bestowed upon those who are terminally ill. This right would allow them to leave this earth with dignity, save their families from financial difficulties, and relieve them of insufferable pain. Some of the arguments against MAID may seem sensible, but can be discredited in many ways. They argue the fact that MAID violates the Hippocratic Oath. Which says, “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asks for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” 4 The oath, however, also says “Similarly I will not give to a woman any abortive remedy.” 4 Abortion for example violates the Hippocratic Oath but has been legal in Canada for almost fifty years. Whether it is an abortion or MAID, each act brings the end to a human life. “They also argue that doctors can make inaccurate prognoses. Medical practitioners can make an incorrect diagnosis or make inaccurate predictions about the life expectancy of a patient.” 1 Such mistakes have, in fact, been made, which is why Bill C-14 has put safeguards in place stating that eligibility for MAID must be confirmed by two independent physicians or nurse practitioners. 5 “Some physicians and health care professionals do not see MAID as moral or ethical. They support and acknowledge people who refuse treatment but are against being part of helping someone to die,” 1 “and some say terminating life is always unethical because it violates the moral belief that life should never be taken intentionally and also violates the basic human right not to be killed.” 8 You may be intentionally taking someone’s life, but the morality of it is based on a person’s belief. You could argue that it is only moral to put someone out of their misery if they are suffering from a debilitating terminal illness. Secondly, the human right is for a person to not be murdered, but the definition of murder is the “unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another,” 9 and the definition of unlawful is “ not conforming to, permitted by, or recognized by law or rules.” 10 Technically MAID is not murder since it requires informed consent, and it conforms to the newly passed bill, therefore it
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