Wednesday, November 16, 2011

CANADIAN PANEL ENDORSES PAS & VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA

The five main points from the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel’s report on End-of-Life Decision Making, released on Tuesday (see http://bit.ly/h13cGz):


  • Canadians do not talk enough about the end of life. On a personal level, many of us do not plan for it, and as a nation we have failed to develop coherent policies or set sufficient standards for the end-of-life care delivered every day all across the country. We need to plan for end of life personally and as a society.
  • Canada performs poorly in ensuring access to high quality palliative care. Governments should increase efforts to achieve goals for standards of palliative care established in multiple reports and commissions.
  • Uncertainties about the legal status of withholding and withdrawal of potentially life-sustaining treatment without the consent of the individual should be resolved. The legal uncertainties about palliative sedation should be resolved and practice guidelines should be developed and implemented.
  • Autonomy is a paramount value in Canadian public policy. Dignity is a value whose meaning is obscure and which can, and is, used on both sides of the assisted dying debate. The evidence from years of experience and research where euthanasia and/or assisted suicide are permitted does not support claims that decriminalization will result in vulnerable persons being subject to abuse or a slippery slope from voluntary to non-voluntary euthanasia.
  • Assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia should be legally permitted for competent individuals who make a free and informed decision that their life is no longer worth living. Canada should have a permissive yet carefully regulated and monitored system with respect to assisted death.


1 comment:

  1. I can this there have been mainly discussed five main points of Royal Society of Canada and Expert Panel’s report on end of life. This decision making is not of dissertation superior papers but this is only of royal society of Canada. So the blog is really important on in all extents.

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