chicot60
02-26-2011, 12:41 AM
By DAVENE JEFFREY and PATRICIA BROOKS
The details surrounding Stephan Bolton and the death of his wife Barbara Jollimore-Bolton are still unfolding.
But Bolton’s story has, at the very least, reignited the debate over end-of-life care and the ethics and law surrounding euthanasia.
Criminal lawyer Jason Gratl said that Canada’s criminal laws do not reflect the opinions of Canadians on issues of euthanasia or assisted suicide.
"I think it’s quite clear from the polling that a majority of Canadians have a great deal of understanding and compassion for family members who find themselves in the unfortunate position even of making choices about unconscious family members or family members who lack the capacity to make the decision for themselves," Gratl said.
The Vancouver lawyer represented Robert Latimer, a Saskatchewan farmer who received a life sentence for second-degree murder in the death of his daughter Tracy. The 13-year-old was disabled and lived with severe chronic pain.
Latimer was granted full parole in December.
"You can see a very high level of support and sympathy for the situation in which Robert Latimer found himself," Gratl said.
And 70 per cent of Canadians support decriminalization of assisted suicide, he said.
But politicians, who are afraid of losing votes, are holding the law back, he said.
Gratl clarified that he knows nothing about Bolton. The Liverpool man reported to the Queens RCMP detachment Wednesday after calling The Chronicle Herald to say that he gave his terminally ill wife lethal injections.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are, generally speaking, taboo topics for doctors and are considered criminal activities, he said. However, he blames Canada’s "ancient" laws with keeping medical professionals from discussing end-of-life issues.
"The medical system and medical professional associations are not yet comfortable with what role they are to play in end-of-life decision making. Generally speaking, health-care professionals are oriented toward saving lives rather than taking them."
Many health professionals are uncomfortable when faced with assisting someone to end their life, he said.
"There are a small number of medical professionals who will admit they are confronted with those choice situations and have, in fact, assisted their patients in taking their own lives," Gratl said.
Sometimes doctors administer painkillers with the intention of easing a patient’s suffering, the side effect of which is to hasten death, he said.
"Those are close ethical questions that doctors and professional associations find very troubling and very vexing. Part of the reason they find it vexing is because the criminal law has a very blunt approach to these very delicate issues."
Marika Warren, assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s department of bioethics, said the medical and ethical communities are divided over the issue.
There is ongoing debate on palliative sedation, or the use of heavy doses of different drugs that can keep the patient comfortable but can affect respiration or other vital functions.
"If you know that it’s likely to hasten death but it’s also relieving symptoms and your primary goal is to relieve symptoms, then the secondary part is less problematic," she said.
Warren acted as primary caregiver for her terminally ill mother.
"There isn’t a lot of oversight of family caregivers, not the same way as in a hospital where you have someone counting out pills and things like that.
"So there’s a potential, given family caregiving situations, that this happens more frequently than we know just because of the way family caregiving is set up."
After reading The Chronicle Herald story about Bolton in Thursday’s newspaper, Warren said the situation illustrates the need for appropriate support for caregivers.
"And as more and more people are choosing to die at home and more and more family members are being put . . . into the role of having to bear witness to someone else’s suffering, which is incredibly difficult without the sort of training that health-care providers get . . . there needs to be support for people who are in that role so they have ways to cope with the experience."
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1230078.html
The details surrounding Stephan Bolton and the death of his wife Barbara Jollimore-Bolton are still unfolding.
But Bolton’s story has, at the very least, reignited the debate over end-of-life care and the ethics and law surrounding euthanasia.
Criminal lawyer Jason Gratl said that Canada’s criminal laws do not reflect the opinions of Canadians on issues of euthanasia or assisted suicide.
"I think it’s quite clear from the polling that a majority of Canadians have a great deal of understanding and compassion for family members who find themselves in the unfortunate position even of making choices about unconscious family members or family members who lack the capacity to make the decision for themselves," Gratl said.
The Vancouver lawyer represented Robert Latimer, a Saskatchewan farmer who received a life sentence for second-degree murder in the death of his daughter Tracy. The 13-year-old was disabled and lived with severe chronic pain.
Latimer was granted full parole in December.
"You can see a very high level of support and sympathy for the situation in which Robert Latimer found himself," Gratl said.
And 70 per cent of Canadians support decriminalization of assisted suicide, he said.
But politicians, who are afraid of losing votes, are holding the law back, he said.
Gratl clarified that he knows nothing about Bolton. The Liverpool man reported to the Queens RCMP detachment Wednesday after calling The Chronicle Herald to say that he gave his terminally ill wife lethal injections.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are, generally speaking, taboo topics for doctors and are considered criminal activities, he said. However, he blames Canada’s "ancient" laws with keeping medical professionals from discussing end-of-life issues.
"The medical system and medical professional associations are not yet comfortable with what role they are to play in end-of-life decision making. Generally speaking, health-care professionals are oriented toward saving lives rather than taking them."
Many health professionals are uncomfortable when faced with assisting someone to end their life, he said.
"There are a small number of medical professionals who will admit they are confronted with those choice situations and have, in fact, assisted their patients in taking their own lives," Gratl said.
Sometimes doctors administer painkillers with the intention of easing a patient’s suffering, the side effect of which is to hasten death, he said.
"Those are close ethical questions that doctors and professional associations find very troubling and very vexing. Part of the reason they find it vexing is because the criminal law has a very blunt approach to these very delicate issues."
Marika Warren, assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s department of bioethics, said the medical and ethical communities are divided over the issue.
There is ongoing debate on palliative sedation, or the use of heavy doses of different drugs that can keep the patient comfortable but can affect respiration or other vital functions.
"If you know that it’s likely to hasten death but it’s also relieving symptoms and your primary goal is to relieve symptoms, then the secondary part is less problematic," she said.
Warren acted as primary caregiver for her terminally ill mother.
"There isn’t a lot of oversight of family caregivers, not the same way as in a hospital where you have someone counting out pills and things like that.
"So there’s a potential, given family caregiving situations, that this happens more frequently than we know just because of the way family caregiving is set up."
After reading The Chronicle Herald story about Bolton in Thursday’s newspaper, Warren said the situation illustrates the need for appropriate support for caregivers.
"And as more and more people are choosing to die at home and more and more family members are being put . . . into the role of having to bear witness to someone else’s suffering, which is incredibly difficult without the sort of training that health-care providers get . . . there needs to be support for people who are in that role so they have ways to cope with the experience."
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1230078.html