The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the dying experience
Tag: End of Life
Palliative care access still lacking
Palliative care improvements still in their infancy.
What are the emotional consequences of performing assisted death?
Should people with mental health disorders have access to physician-assisted death?
Should someone with depression be assisted in ending their life? It’s a question that many in health care are currently wrestling with. And it’s not a hypothetical one. The February 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on physician-assisted death – known as the Carter decision – opens the door for people with mental health conditions…
Sedation at the end of life: a legal grey zone
As questions mount regarding what legislation the federal government will enact around doctor-assisted suicide, one end-of-life medical practice receives little public attention. It’s called Continuous Palliative Sedation Therapy (CPST). Formerly known as “terminal sedation,” the therapy is used when all other attempts to relieve a patient’s excessive suffering have failed, and the only option is to…
Medical assistance in dying: should it be legal or banned in Canada?
Conflict at the end of life: what happens when doctors and families disagree?
Informed consent to medical treatment is one of the foundational pillars of Canadian medical law and the practice of medicine. Before administering a course of treatment, health care professionals are expected to ensure that their patients understand the benefits and risks of each option and that they voluntarily agree to undergo the chosen therapy. In…
Planning for care at the end of life: our collective responsibility
Catherine White is a 62 year-old potter and realtor from St. Joseph Island, Ontario. In 2009 she was celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary in Cozumel, Mexico when she felt a funny sensation in her left leg. Two surgeries and 4 years later, she lies in a hospital bed with a sarcoma that has spread to…
Advance care planning: a difficult conversation
Advance care planning is an important process by which people think about how they would like to be cared for if they are seriously ill. While most Canadians agree that having conversations about advance care planning are important, fewer than half actually do. In some jurisdictions, advance care planning is done much better than it…