OPINION: Federal gov’t to open wide the doors to death

I met Mark Pickup in Edmonton about 25 years ago after he began suffering from the onset of multiple sclerosis. He walked with a cane. He was cheerful, energetic and driven. He told me that when he was first diagnosed, he was shattered, fell into deep depression and contemplated suicide. If physician-assisted suicide were legal then, he would have volunteered, no question. He wanted out.

Yet, Mark soldiered on. The black cloud over his head eventually receded. “I was loved,” he said, explaining what saved him. He had a devoted wife and family. He is now 67 years old, has lived with MS for more than 30 years and is an accomplished writer, speaker and advocate for living life with dignity.

Mark is appalled that the Canadian government recently announced plans to expand access to suicide by lethal injection by dropping the age requirement from 18 to as young as 14 (while prohibiting parental interference), to people who are depressed and people with a deteriorating condition, who had asked for death in an advanced directive when they were mentally coherent.

The latest proposal means that emotional suffering is enough to meet the low-bar criteria to qualify for the needle. If Pickup had opted for death in his darkest hour, “I never would have known my five wonderful grandchildren.”

No one advises that you should make serious decisions when you feel like you’re trapped in a dark closet. You wait for a new day. Our prime minister thinks 10 days is long enough. After that, if you’re still down in the dumps, they just need your signature. A doctor or nurse will ensure an injection will prevent you from seeing another day. Killing people is so medically necessary, that it’s covered by OHIP. (A physician will pocket up to $440 for a few hours of work; so, it’s not just about you.)

The federal government’s proposal is incredibly shocking because it is not uncommon for a teenager to think about suicide. About one in five thinks about it and half of those who have thought of it have thought of a plan.

This new proposal isn’t about relieving pain. Pain has been effectively managed for more than 20 years. Ottawa palliative care specialist Dr. John Scott said that pain-relieving drugs, along with a simple educational program, can be successful in the vast majority of patients. “The remaining cases require more careful attention and the use of multiple drugs and therapies to achieve complete relief,” he said.

Today, pain management is so efficient that if anyone is in so much pain that he wants to die, he doesn’t need death by doctor. He needs a new doctor. Pickup’s own mother died from two of the most painful cancers, brain and bone cancer. He remembers nudging her before she died and asking: “Mom, are you in pain?” “No,” she said calmly. She was coherent and well cared for.

She was also not starved to death as are some patients who are not even dying. Her food intake was reduced to what she could handle. Death by starvation can be worse than assisted suicide precisely because it is so painful. According to Massachusetts Supreme Court judge Lynch, in a case that involved starving a patient who appeared in a vegetative state, the removal of tubes providing nutrition and water would likely cause the following effects: Parched and cracked lips, swelling and possibly cracking the tongue, possible nose bleeding, concentrated urine leading to burning of the bladder and, drying of the stomach lining, causing convulsions (dry heaves). The court called this type of death “extremely painful . . . cruel and violent.”

We have been told so many lies about government-sponsored health care that when it comes to the depressed and the dying, there are an enormous number of people with blood on their hands. Some 7,000 Canadians have opted for physician-assisted suicide since it was legalized in 2016.

Killing has become a substitute for learning how to alleviate the suffering of others. Canada needs to come to grips with the fact that we need to offer more help to the mentally ill and we need to help the dying learn how to live the rest of their days. At a time when the Liberal government is marginalizing religion, it’s precisely religious groups that the government needs to help the dying make peace with themselves, those around them and God.

Of course, our government is so wise that it is loathe to recognize God because it operates on the understanding that the universe is nothing more than an accident. One day there was nothing and then in an instant there was light and energy and all the laws of physics and an ever-expanding universe. Nothing miraculous to see here, move along. And since life is an accident too, here are your anti-depressant pills to cope with the meaninglessness of it all. Or would you prefer an injection?