Assisted dying in Canada - One redditor's experience

[OnlinePoker]

I don't know if it's permissible to link to Reddit posts, but this is an outstanding perspective from one person whose loved one chose the option. Most of the comments are positive, but there have to be asses in every crowd.
---------

An immediate family member last year was diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans (popcorn lungs) with an unknown cause to it. It is something that is not curable. As someone who was a daily part of my life it was hard to watch the condition progress.

His condition progressively got worse and he was transferred to a palativcare physicality a couple of weeks ago. He wasn't happy living the way he was living and slowly dying. The doctors discussed with him the option of assisted death... something he did not know about, and myself I thought was still not finalized in Canada yet, so it was a surprise to hear this.

After a long discussion with the family and doctors, he signed the papers a week ago to start the process. He wanted to end his life and do away with the suffering and the suffering to come...

https://np.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/5uymtv/i_want_to_thank_this_country_for_the_assisted/

[Daemonaquila]

1. Both beautiful and horrible.

And worth the read. I am so sad for him and his friends and family, but happy he had the option and love. People do need to read this and understand what it's all about.

[shrike]

2. A much saner alternative to what I'm told is offered in Switzerland

I saw part of a doc on suicide tourism in Geneva. It included a death on camera: the individual is given a substance by mouth which ends up killing him in about forty minutes. Everyone in the doc talked about how wonderful and humane it was: I didn't see anything humane about it. Why the hell, I thought, can't they just put the guy to sleep and then inject him with something once he isn't conscious and can feel the effect?

If assisted death is offered, it should be along the lines of what this reddit thread described.

[Sunlei]

3. yup euthanasia is supposed to be a humane death. Give them a heroin overdose, that's fast.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Perhaps because "injecting something" would go beyond assisted suicide...

and would violate a Doctor's basic oath. That would be active participation; essentially that would be execution.

[shrike]

7. Shoot, even a Kevorkian-style machine would have been better than what was depicted on that video

My point was, medically-supervised assisted dying is far better than going to Switzerland and getting poison and a chocolate. Hopefully, once laws change such "tourism" will be obsolete.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Didn't watch...

I'm all for assisted suicide and death with dignity. Hell, I've known someone personally (father of a friend) who took that option.

I'm not even sure he did it before or after we passed the law here. He did search options and set things up beforehand and had the assistance/support of his daughter. She misses him, of course, but he was 80+ and fading with Alzheimers. It was a merciful option for him, and for his family.

[Sunlei]

5. How about a lung transplant for these not curable lung diseases? years & years of slow death costs

more and isn't very humane for anyone.

[OnlinePoker]

6. That only works if there are lungs available to transplant.

Last edited Mon Feb 20, 2017, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Last year in B.C., for instance, there were a total of 40 lung transplants. So far this year there have been 4 with 36 people on the waiting list. Just under a quarter of the provincial population are registered organ donors.

[Sunlei]

10. probably thousands of 'donated lungs' that go unused because there are only 36 on the list.

meanwhile hundreds (thousands?) of people suffocate slowly for years, have years of medical care, or chemo for lung cancers and very costly medicines because they aren't considered for new lungs.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Another issue we need to keep fighting for

The right to die how we choose. Assisted dying is an issue many of us will face ourselves. These rights are also challenged by the American Taliban known as the GOP.

[Akamai]

9. Thanks for posting this! The doctors seemed very humane!