Should care homes be able to forbid MAID at their facilities?
Seven per cent of the deaths on Vancouver Island last year were medically assisted. Ipsos Reid claims that over 80 per cent of Canadians support Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID).
Many long term care facilities do not permit MAID in their facilities, but are required by law to provide a patron wishing MAID services transfer to facilities that will allow MAID, or to alternate beds that may be used for that purpose. Given the shortage of LTC facilities in this province, other solutions are often found. Some funeral parlors have created rooms that may be used to complete this medical procedure, some low cost motels are also used.
Care facilities in this province are heavily subsidized by the provincial government. Should care facilities be allowed to impose their religious beliefs on their patrons and have these beliefs turn their patrons’ quiet and peaceful end of life at a place that has become their home into a disruptive occasion in a strange place?
Pete Edgar
Cowichan Bay