SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Bishops with the Catholic and Anglican churches in the territory are urging the GNWT to place strict restrictions on doctor-assisted death as it grapples with how to regulate the practice legalized by the Supreme Court of Canada last year.
Bishop David Parsons, left, of the Diocese of the Arctic Anglican Church of Canada and Bishop Mark Hagemoen, with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith together penned a letter to the GNWT this week about doctor-assisted death. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
A four-page letter to Premier Bob McLeod and Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy, also sent to media on Monday, lays out the position of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith and Diocese of the Arctic Anglican Church of Canada.
The letter calls on government to increase the availability of palliative - or end of life - care and ensure fair access to it.
"That's something we really want to underscore as important," Bishop Mark Hagemoen said in an interview Monday.
Palliative care facilities shouldn't have to provide assisted death, which could result in a loss of trust in those facilities by patients, the letter states.
"We also want to be absolutely clear that the Catholic and Anglican communities do not support suicide, assisted suicide, or euthanasia," states the letter signed by Hagemoen and Anglican bishops David Parsons and Darren McCartney.
However, given the reality that assisted death is now a right across the country, the bishops lay out a series of recommendations to protect vulnerable people.
"While we understand that proposals to ensure that 'safeguards' are put into place to prevent coercion, we are concerned that pressure on vulnerable persons cannot always be avoided," the letter states.
They point to concerns around depression, elder abuse and whether physicians ethically opposed to the practice will be forced to administer assisted death.
The churches state any consultation on new laws should be open both to advocates and to those who oppose assisted death, which the letter refers to as assisted suicide.
"Our prayers are with the government because it's a big issue," Hagemoen said.
The letter was sent shortly after the health minister sent a letter of his own seeking input from medical professionals on how the territory should regulate the practice.
The minister's request comes nearly a year after the Supreme Court ruled consenting adults who are enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering have the right to end their lives with the help of a doctor.
The court gave the federal government a year to draft new legislation. Earlier this month the court granted a four-month extension. During the four months, those wishing to die with a doctor's help can petition a judge
for permission to do so.
The health minister, in an interview before the letter from the bishops was issued, said there are many questions left to be answered about doctor-assisted death as governments rush to prepare new rules about the practice.
"It's a huge file, there's tons of questions and everyone is struggling with it," Abernethy said Thursday following a meeting with his provincial and federal counterparts in Vancouver. He's hoping for a standard approach to the issue across the country.
Even after the federal government gets new criminal laws in place, the territory - responsible for heath-care delivery and regulation of health-care professionals - will also need to implement new rules of its own. Those rules could include how a person would apply for doctor-assisted death, where the practice can happen and what happens if someone in a small community without a doctor applies.
Abernethy said the territory will closely examine the various reports already produced exploring the issue, including a federal panel that carried out consultation with legal and medical experts and a report by the Canadian Medical Association.
The association's report, released Jan. 21, has recommendations dealing with things like how a person would go about requesting to die, the role of the doctor and the establishment of a oversight body that would collect information about
assisted death cases.
