Editor, The News:
Re: Assisted suicide is about a choice (Health Care, July 20).
Dr. Marco Terwiel, in his third article on assisted suicide, correctly states that the practice is currently unlawful in Canada, and that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith thinks that is unconstitutional.
In a previous article, he described himself as one with “a lifelong habit of critical appraisal of just about everything that was considered sacred in my profession and in life in general.”
This, I suppose, explains his support for Justice Smith’s decision, counter to the practice of almost every civilized country in the world today.
He tries to clarify the difference between assisted suicide, where a doctor is party to killing the patient, and euthanasia, which he describes as the term most of us associate with killing sick pets or dangerous bears and cougars. If we allow our doctors to assist in the suicide of human persons, doesn’t that imply people should be treated like animals, if they find life intolerable at some point?
Dr. Terwiel didn’t mention that the second leading cause of death among teens in Canada is suicide. Surly doctors and everyone else should be concerned with helping people through difficult life situations, including psychological, as well as physical suffering.
He perhaps doesn’t know that a group critical of Justice Smith’s ruling, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, an organization made up of and representing handicapped Canadians, stated in a press release on July 13 that “there is a concern that vulnerable people will be put at risk … ” They urged the “Government of Canada to appeal this decision.”
Dr. Terwiel should further inform himself of the comprehensive Remmelink Report, an official study by the Dutch government in 1991, which found that in 1990, in Holland, of the 8,681 cases of euthanasia reported by doctors, 1,040 were patients killed by their doctors, without knowledge or consent. So much for protective guidelines; inevitably, some want to play God.
The experience in Holland apparently went from first permitting doctor assisted suicide of elderly people experiencing a painful terminal illness, then equating physical and mental pain, finally including the young who suffer mental and/or physical challenges.
Many old people in Holland today are afraid to go to the hospital fearing they will be “put down” like a sick dog, without their consent.
Richard Whalen
Maple Ridge
