CCBI News – Euthanasia and Mental Illness; Home-based Palliative Care (Staying Home as Long as Possible)

October 7, 2022

Dear Friends of CCBI,

Euthanasia and Mental Illness

In a landmark case decided on October 4, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights decided in favour of Mr Thomas Mortier, saying his mother’s right to life was violated by the State. He had not been informed and only discovered after her death that his mother had been euthanized. The Court ruled that Belgium violated the European Convention on Human Rights when it failed to properly examine the circumstances leading to her euthanasia after she had been diagnosed with incurable depression. It held that there was a violation of Article 2 of the Convention, i.e., that everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. It declared that Belgium failed to fulfill the necessary procedural obligations under the same Article through lack of independence of the Commission deciding her case, and also through delaying the criminal investigation instigated by Mr Mortier.

The Court’s finding demonstrates the inadequacy of so-called ‘safeguards’ for the intentional ending of life, uncovering areas that unfold when euthanasia is made legal, as in Belgium and Canada. It stated that more safeguards are necessary to protect life, but the case highlights the opposite view: safeguarding laws and protocols, thought to be adequate, failed to protect the life of this woman, a person suffering from incurable depression, raising serious objections to the whole procedure.

The Court dismissed the overall challenge to the Belgian legal framework surrounding euthanasia, but cases like this are making it clearer to more people that ‘safeguards’ touted as offering protection to vulnerable people should trigger more doubt. From the beginning of the movement towards the legalization of euthanasia, CCBI has been firm in opposition to it, pointing out that the reality is that there are no safeguards that can mitigate the dangers of euthanasia procedures once they become legal. Now that Canada is about to allow euthanasia for some cases of mental illness in 2023, we need to reiterate that point, indicating cases such as this one and informing people about the need to protect life.

Europe’s top human rights court rules that Belgium violated right to life in euthanasia case (adfinternational.org)

Staying Home as Long as Possible / Home Based Palliative Care

It is well known that most people would prefer to die at home. It is equally well known that people are reluctant to move into long-term care homes, more recently because of problems in these homes, revealed and exacerbated by COVID and also because, in Ontario for example, the government proposed a policy of placing people in residences far from home and family. Mainly, though, most people do not actually choose to live in such residences, but circumstances and lack of alternatives force their hand. Given the choice, they would prefer to stay in their own surroundings and could do so, if the necessary help were provided by community services. The major obstacle is that there not enough such care is provided to cover existing need. Ironically, as we frequently mention, the costs of such care are lower than costs involved in housing people in long-term residences. More social advocacy is needed for our seniors and people who could continue to live at home, given some help, yet who do not need the full-scale services of long-term care homes. This in turn would make placements for those who do need full scale services more available, and, in turn, would free up beds occupied by them for acute care patients.

An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal goes a step further in looking at end-of-life, saying that palliative care could also be done on an at-home basis more often, freeing up space for acute-care hospitals and being more attentive to people’s wishes to die at home instead of in a clinical, unfamiliar setting. While this is not always possible because of circumstances, the realization is that the availability of better training and access to community services such as Pallium make receiving palliative care at home much more of a general ‘option,’ as the article recommends.

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Home-based palliative care in Canada: time for this to be an option for everyone | CMAJ

Pope Francis’ Intention for October

A Church Open to Everyone
We pray for the Church; ever faithful to, and courageous in preaching the Gospel, may the Church be a community of solidarity, fraternity and welcome, always living in an atmosphere of synodality.

Moira and Bambi