Interfaith Statement on Health Care comes up with a five-point plan
OTTAWA (CCN)
Representatives of the Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, and Muslim faiths issued a call June 14 for a well-funded, high-quality, national palliative-care strategy.
They made the pitch as euthanasia and assisted-suicide Bill C-14 came up for Third Reading in the Senate.
“The need for quality widely accessible palliative care should be one of the most pressing concerns of our country,” said Bishop Noel Simard of Valleyfield, on behalf of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“Faith communities, along with health-care workers, have for centuries stood by the bedsides of the dying to comfort and protect, to heal and console. Today, as faith leaders, we recommit ourselves to this sacred task of providing the spiritual care so essential to palliative care.”
Bishop Simard said such language as “medical aid in dying” to refer to Bill C-14 or the euthanasia law in Quebec creates confusion. He said it sounds like palliative care that seeks to alleviate the physical suffering and accompany the patient while attending to psycho-social and spiritual needs.
Palliative care views the person as the subject of his or her life who is worthy of compassion, he said.
A person is a subject, he said. “It is a subject who suffers.” He said the proper words euthanasia and assisted suicide should be used because they correctly imply the elimination of the person in order to eliminate the person’s suffering.
Palliative care “maintains the person as the subject of his life,” he said.
“Palliative care alleviates the suffering of those nearing the end of life, yet, lamentably, it is not accessible to everyone,” said Julia Beazley of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. “As faith communities and as Canadians, we must commit to making high-quality palliative care available to all.”
She listed the five steps the Interfaith Statement on Health Care has called for to improve access to quality palliative care across the country.
There should be a pan-Canadian strategy involving all levels of government, from federal to provincial and municipal.
Palliative care and end-of-life care should be available in all settings, including the home.
There must be a commitment to improving quality and consistency.
More support should be given caregivers and their families through various means such as tax breaks.
The health-care system must respect people nearing the end of their lives and consider their psychological and spiritual needs and those of their families during the dying process.
“Preserving human dignity and providing comfort to the most vulnerable among us are core Canadian values that transcend faith communities,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
“In light of Canada’s aging population, there is a pressing need to improve access to high-quality palliative care, which can make a world of difference in the well-being of patients, and their families, entering the final stages of life.”
“It is our duty to care for one other and offer assistance in times of need,” said Imam Sikander of the Canadian Council of Imams.
“Fortunately, many Canadians take this responsibility very seriously. We must ensure, though, that the ill and dying are not left out of our care and compassion. Every life is worth living and saving. Let us come together to enhance and cherish life.”
According to the Canadian Hospice and Palliative Care Association, only 15 to 30 per cent of people have access to palliative care, despite the fact 96 per cent of them support it. In addition, families pay about 25 per cent of the costs, putting a heavy financial burden on those caring for the terminally ill.
The association said palliative care would save the health-care system between $7,000 and $8,000 per patient at the end of their life, and it warned of a coming crunch as the proportion of seniors increases.
