BY SURJIT SINGH FLORA
A peaceful, tranquil and painless death might mean something different to you than to someone else. Your grandmother might want to know when death is near so she can have a few last words with near and the dear ones. Your mother might want to die quickly and not linger. Perhaps your mother has said she wants to be in a hospital where she can receive treatment for her illness until dying her last breath. Many people desired to be surrounded by near and dear ones, and many of them just want to be alone. Of course, sadly, many of them often never get to choose. When a doctor says something like, “I’m sorry, things are not good. There are none of the other treatments for us to try. We did our best,” that might made you sad, hurt your feelings, close the door to the possibility of a cure, but it does not stop the need for medical support. Nor does it end the involvement of family and friends. But at this moment, the family may have to make some tough decisions. When someone does not recover quickly, the families need to decide to remove these aids and allow the person to die or keep their loved one on a ventilator and feeding tube indefinitely. The federal government has since launched an online consultation that aims to find a “death sentence with medical assistance” from the Canadian public so the government can make a law-changing on Mar. 11. Should assisted suicide for mental illness be legal? Yes! Absolutely! But only for those suffering from long-term physical pain, and in a coma from years on the hospital beds, otherwise or those who have lived a “full life.” In the abstract, yes, everyone should have the right to decide to end his/her life painlessly as possible. / That means in the abstract that a person ought to be able to enlist the aid of trained medical personnel to assist his/her decision to die. This “right to die” has been recognized in some countries. There is a need for change. In Sep. 2018, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that the provisions of the federal government’s laws on this issue are very restrictive. According to Bill C- 14, passed by the Liberal government in 2016, a person may be allowed to die with medical assistance only if his death can be accurately estimated even if death is reasonably foreseeable. Although the above decision applies only to Quebec, the decision was not challenged by the Supreme Court of Quebec or the Federal Government, which made it necessary to change the law. One of the questions that can be asked is what steps should be taken to prevent the deceased person being exploited, especially if the reasonably foreseeable death sentence has been removed? Will people not go out of their way to leave their relatives’ friends for the sake of their own personal interests, or will doctors make the wrong decisions? Besides, many other questions are being asked of the public. For example, should children under the age of 18 be allowed to die themselves? Especially children who can decide for themselves. Should both the doctor and the patient agree that all treatment options have been eliminated? Do Alzheimer’s patients allow them to express their desire to die? More than 2,500 Canadians have accepted death with medical assistance in the last three years since Bill C-14. With the kind of human rights watchdog in Canada, this trend is far-fetched. The truth is that before the passage of Bill C-14, the Canadian Medical Association conducted a survey in which 63 per cent of doctors were not in favor of paying their patients premature death. People have a right to kill themselves, doubly so if they suffer from living. Could you do the right thing: let them go? Everyone has the inalienable right to live their own lives as they wish as long as it does not interfere with / others’ rights. Fundamental to this right is the right to end their lives. Doctors should be free to assist people who freely choose to end their lives in such a way as to make this as painless as possible. Would you support a “death with dignity” or “aid in dying” law in Canada? I am in favor of an “aid in dying” law
