I would like to respond to the letter supporting doctor-assisted suicide in Canada.
As a young Canadian, I fear what a change like this would look like for our society.
I believe that one should not have the right to end their own life or the life of another.
This does not include the decision to remove life support or withhold treatment as this still results in a natural death. The major shift that would take place if a law were to come into place, is that those who suffer with a terminal illness would now be choosing to suffer.
In the eyes of society, they are willfully choosing not to take the offered medicine of suicide. I believe that our society will soon view people that choose not to end their lives, as individuals who think that they are morally superior to those who end their lives.
We will see them as taking up valuable hospital space and public health care dollars. I fear that our quality of end of life care will also decline as this type of thought becomes mainstream.
Let us stay on the path we are currently on. Let us improve end of life care and compassion, and ensure that we provide as much comfort as possible for those in discomfort. Let us remember to visit those in need and let them know that we still value them as a society.
Let us be a country that stands on the side of life.
Joel van der Molen
Vernon
