At least 631 people have chosen a medically assisted death since it became legal, coroner tells CBC News
By Laura Fraser, CBC News
While more than 630 Ontarians to date have legally ended their lives with the help of a nurse or doctor, none have been able to do so within the walls of a hospital that has historic ties to the Catholic Church.
But advocates for medically assisted dying argue that since these are public-funded health-care centres, they are bound to offer the option — even though Ontario law currently exempts any person or institution that objects.
It’s legislation that Dying With Dignity Canada may challenge in court, according to the group’s CEO.
“What Ontario did is they gave an opt-out to basic and essential health care to hospitals that don’t want to provide for the dying,” says chief executive Shanaaz Gokool.
Instead, the law states that the hospitals, hospices and long-term care centres unwilling to perform medically assisted death must transfer a patient to a facility that will. They must do the same in cases of abortion, which is also forbidden by the ethical guidelines set out by the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada.
Switching facilities could be a trauma for end of life patients
While such transfers might be possible for a woman of child-bearing age, Gokool said that switching facilities may not be as easy for someone at the end of life who is older, more frail and likely already in pain.
“It really depends on how precarious their physical medical condition is,” she said. “And if they are in a precarious state physically, then that can cause them more trauma.”
The advocacy organization supports the idea that individual nurses or doctors can choose not to provide the service, but said that the legal right to object should not extend to an organization.
Dying with Dignity’s potential legal challenge would not only tackle that exemption, Gokool said, but also a clause in Bill 84 that restricts freedom-of-information access around medically assisted dying.
Secrecy around where it’s available
The clause forbids freedom-of-information officers from releasing information that names which facilities assist — or do not assist — in patients ending their lives. Not only does that limit the data given to social justice organizations, but it makes it harder for patients or family members trying to navigate their end-of-life options, Gokool said.
“We won’t be able to use freedom-of-information requests to hold the government accountable in terms of what is happening with these kinds of transfers,” she said.
Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner Brian Beamish vehemently opposed the access-to-information clause in Bill 84 when it came up for debate last spring. Beamish said the proposal wasn’t based on any evidence that the release of the information would cause any harm.