Bill C-7 has created ethical tensions between MAID providers and palliative care, between transparency and patient privacy, and between offering a dignified death rather than a dignified life.
A core focus of palliative care is on easing symptoms and increasing quality of life for people who have a serious or chronic illness, and not solely for those who are dying.
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The challenging realities surrounding end-of-life care are especially difficult for older people experiencing homelessness, who have more barriers to accessing hospice care.
Gaps between health systems can mean NDIS participants at the end of their lives don’t have the support of their regular NDIS support workers.
Several factors ranging from personal spiritual beliefs to patient relationships to medical legal issues can influence whether a health-care practitioner participates in providing medical assistance in dying (MAID).
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For people to access medical assistance in dying (MAID) requires health-care professionals willing to provide the service. The reasons health-care providers choose not to participate are important.
Palliative care, often misunderstood, is not synonymous with hospice care.
You can start these conversations simply, like saying, “I need to think about the future. Can you help me?”
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When you prepare to talk about end-of-life decisions and the legacy you want to leave behind, try thinking about them as gifts you bestow to family and friends.
Getting a referral to palliative care can be a complicated process.
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Palliative care is about living well and meeting patients’ goals, but referral can be more complex than access to medical assistance in dying (MAID). Palliative care should be as accessible as MAID.
Despite the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal people in prisons, there are near to no cultural protocols in place, and chronic illness is often not addressed.
The case for letting people go gentle into that good night.
Improving death-friendliness offers further opportunity to improve social inclusion. A death-friendly approach could lay the groundwork for people to stop fearing getting old or alienating those who have.
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Many Australians come to the end of their life while living in aged care. But damningly, the aged care royal commission found many residents have worse palliative care options than those living elsewhere.
Minister of Justice David Lametti gives a thumbs up as he rises to vote in favour of a motion on Bill C-7, medical assistance in dying, in the House of Commons on Dec. 10, 2020.
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Expanding access to medical assistance in dying (MAID) to those not terminally ill puts vulnerable people at risk of feeling pressured into MAID, and doctors at risk of being forced to facilitate it.
The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association is calling on health authorities to “implement a more compassionate approach to end-of-life visitations … during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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How we experience the moment of death may be influenced by a cocktail of brain chemicals and the manner in which our brains shut down.
In a research study, 84 per cent of residents and families who received a pamphlet about end-of-life choices felt encouraged to think about their future care.
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The seriously ill and their families often want to protect each other from thoughts of death. Conversation about end-of-life choices are, however, essential to a good death.