CCBI News – Euthanasia—No Substitute for Palliative Care; Francis—Care of the Elderly

June 17, 2022

Dear Friends of CCBI,

Euthanasia is No Substitute for Palliative Care

Two articles I read this week highlight different approaches to illness and death and, in one of them, the temptation to look at death by euthanasia as the answer to lack of health care. The UK association Dying Matters held a recent awareness week, focusing on what it means ‘to be in a good place to die.’ The question was asked to encourage people who know they are dying to make a sort of inventory to reassure themselves and their families, perhaps even their immediate communities, by evaluating their personal status, “… physically, emotionally, practically, spiritually and even digitally.” One of the speakers, Tracey Morrell, age 52, has a terminal bowel cancer diagnosis, and she is working through her personal list of matters to complete, aiming to make things easier for her husband and family when she dies, saying; “It’s so important to tell people around you what you want because it makes it easier for them.”

Such a seemingly straightforward thought, yet it illustrates an altruistic attitude at a time when she could be forgiven for being self-absorbed! It also illustrates the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. Prudence, in Tracey’s practical wisdom in arranging not only her funeral, but her funeral Mass, as well as making a will, and justice, in her dealing with the reality of her diagnosis and deflecting well-intended assurances from friends that her cancer will be conquered, while she sees through the denial involved in those remarks, opting for reality. She exhibits temperance in her honesty about the situation, neither falling apart nor sounding brave about it all: “I’m not brave at all. I’m dealing with what life’s thrown at me and I’d rather not be dealing with it….” Finally, she shows fortitude in accepting reality and in trying to make the best of the time she may have left to deal with practical matters first in order to focus on her quality of life until the end. Tracey does not mention God, but in what she says and in her actions I find her approach Christ-like. Her focus is on making others’ load lighter through her preparations to help them on and after her death and she offers her days in their service. This is a moving story about death and about loving one’s neighbour, a little like the Good Samaritan in reverse!

On the same day I read about a chronically ill woman from B.C. in her late thirties who applied for MAiD when she could not access the medical care she needed for her rare disease (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome where the body does not produce enough collagen for connective tissues, skin and internal organs, resulting in deterioration and ongoing pain). According to CTV, Fraser Health’s MAiD documentation noted that ‘…there were no other treatment recommendations or treatments suitable to the patient’s needs or to her financial constraints.” The woman is now experiencing organ failure but, rather than accessing the euthanasia procedure she has qualified for, she still hopes to access palliative care or be funded to access an EDS expert. She wants to live! CTV emphasized the point made by this woman, that is its ‘easier to let go’ without support and to access MAiD than it is to find medical help and palliative care in some places in Canada.

B.C. is not a poor province, yet no other resources have been offered to the woman. I checked the B.C. government website and on the first page it states: “B.C.’s publicly-funded health care system ensures that all eligible B.C. residents have access to medically necessary health care services through the Medical Services Plan and to eligible prescription medications, medical supplies, and pharmacy services through the PharmaCare program.” The other provinces most likely have similar statements but are unable to live up to their promises. We know budgets are already stretched, in turn restricting palliative care but, presumably non-intentionally, favouring quick, efficient, cost-cutting and easily accessible euthanasia procedures. MAiD will surely gain ground in such circumstances, when someone who clearly does not prefer that route can find no path to treatment or to palliative care!

Pope Francis and Care of the Elderly

Pope Francis continues his catechesis on the elderly and old age at his weekly audiences, this week focusing on the need for encountering elderly and sick people, especially by younger people. He talked about Jesus’ healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, reminding us that he was accompanied by his disciples and did not visit her by himself, remarking: “It is precisely the Christian community that must take care of the elderly: relatives and friends, but the community. Visiting the elderly must be done by many, together and often.”

This fits with one of the Pope’s watchwords, ‘accompaniment.’ He is always clear about the need for Christians to remember the need to serve the members of the Body of Christ and beyond, and he is even more clear about the need of the elderly for such accompaniment. He encourages youth-to-elder encounter, pointing out that each stage can learn from the other but that the elderly possess stores of wisdom if younger people would only listen and benefit from them! On a more practical note, he reminds us of the current ‘demographic winter,’ where there are many more elderly people than formerly, yet at the same fewer births than even before in many countries. This imbalance is already taking a toll on health care but may also take a toll on elder-youth relationships and encounter, given the numbers involved and the dependency generated.

I’ve been given a terminal diagnosis so it’s not going to end well… – ehospice
Medically assisted dying: B.C. woman sees no alternatives | CTV News
B.C. woman’s medically assisted death prompts investigation | CTV News
Pope Francis at the general audience: ‘When you are old, you are no longer in control of your body’ | Catholic News Agency

Pope Francis’ Intentions for June

We pray for Christian families around the world; may they embody and experience unconditional love and advance in holiness in their daily lives.

Moira and Bambi