Presence
of Christ changes the nature of dying
By Bill Armstrong
REGINA — If we did
a better job of explaining what palliative care is about and delivering
it to the dying and their families when it’s needed, there would
be less need to participate in the debate over euthanasia.
That was one of the basic
messages delivered by Jeff Christiansen, executive director of Regina
Palliative Care, which provides end-of-life care to the sick and dying
and bereavement support to families.
Speaking May 19 on the topic,
Euthanasia: No Way to End, at Holy Trinity Church in Regina, Christiansen
said the call for euthanasia might quiet down if society did a better
job of palliative care.
“It’s not so
much what stance to take toward euthanasia,” he said, “but
what stance to take in providing people with palliative care.”
One of the hurdles blocking
a balanced discussion about euthanasia and palliative care is our culture’s
“dominant, rationalist ethos and the belief that we can solve
any problem. We talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
but we avoid talking about death. But ‘life and death are brothers
who dwell with each other,’ ” he said, quoting a Jewish
saying.
Christiansen identified two
main forces behind the growing interest in euthanasia: the patients’
rights movements that sprang up about 40 years ago, and extended life
expectancy in the developed world, where significant pain and suffering
at the end is almost always the reality.
“The debate over euthanasia
is a debate in the developed world,” he observed. “We have
the luxury of not having to deal with death every day.”
There are four dominant factors that lead people to think of euthanasia
as an alterative: pain and suffering, the desire not to be a burden,
the need to have control over one’s body, and the experience of
depression and stress.
“In the absence of
good palliative care, people will ask for something else,” Christiansen
said, describing good palliative care as life-affirming, healing-centred
rather than disease-centred care. Good palliative care, he added, changes
the horizon of the death experience so that the person dying and their
family and friends can look around. Good spiritual care, he noted, enables
people to see even beyond the horizon.
“The presence of Christ
changes the nature of our living and our dying,” Christiansen
said. “The life and death of Christ changes the horizon of how
we see life and death. We can choose to live as though death no longer
has power over us. Every moment of life is an opportunity to give life
meaning.”
In closing, Christiansen urged his listeners to be informed about the debate over euthanasia, and to advocate for more accessible and better palliative care.
 |
|