Bishops ask Harper to ensure access to palliative care

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — Canada’s bishops have asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ensure palliative care is available to all Canadians.

In an April 8 letter to Harper, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops encourages government to focus on proper end of life care while the debate about euthanasia and assisted suicide dominates the news media.

The means are available to ensure that every Canadian can die with the physical, psychological, social and spiritual care they need, wrote Saint-Jerome Bishop Pierre Morissette, but the majority of Canadians, especially those in rural or small urban areas, does not have access to good palliative care.

“Should Parliament decide to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide before ensuring that every Canadian has access to palliative care, our government will not be allowing individuals to a truly free choice,” he wrote. “Rather, many of our most vulnerable citizens will feel pressured to ask for euthanasia or assisted suicide as a last resort because our society fails to provide them with basic care.”

Morissette wrote that Canada’s bishops are urging all levels of government to promote palliative care, hospices, home care and pharmacare.

The CCCB has thrown its support behind an initiative proposed last October by Ottawa’s chief palliative care physician Dr. Jose Pereira, which asks the federal government to put $20 million toward the development of a palliative care system, the letter said.

The CCCB “is confident that our country is capable of providing its citizens with end of life care which respects their lives and acknowledges the inviolability of each human life,” Morissette wrote. “We look forward to the day when all Canadians will receive the care they deserve as they prepare for their final journey.”

The federal government “has an important leadership role,” the CCCB president wrote.

The bishop also asked the federal government and political and social leaders to “insist on clear and mutually understood definitions” of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Many anti-euthanasia advocates have complained of confusion that equates the withdrawal of useless or burdensome medical treatment from a dying person with euthanasia, which is defined as the willful termination of a person’s life.

Parliament resumed debate on Bloc Quebecois MP’s Francine Lalonde private member’s bill C-384 on March 20. The bill comes up for its second hour of debate April 20, with a vote on April 21. If the bill passes second reading, it will go to committee for further study. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is urging Canadians to contact their MP and ask them to vote against Bill C-384.