Editor:
Re: MPs support Delta Hospice in feud with Fraser Health, Jan. 23
I find it disturbing that MP Tamara Jansen would release a statement that includes information that is blatantly untrue, and equally disturbing the Delta Optimist would recap said statement without checking the facts.
No hospice staff member will be required, willingly or otherwise, to “betray personal beliefs and participate” in the process of MAiD when patients who choose MAiD are supported to stay on site at the Irene Thomas Hospice.
Fraser Health has a MAiD team, separate from hospice staff, that carries out the process and the provision. Hospice staff who are conscientious objectors do not have to participate in any way, other than providing the amazing hospice care that is unrelated to the MAiD provision, and for which they are specially trained.
Contrary to Jansen’s statement, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Fraser Health are respecting the “right of medical professionals to exercise their freedom of conscience.” It’s Jansen, her colleagues and Angelina Ireland that are actually not “respecting everyone’s right to hold different views” by asking patients to choose between hospice care and MAiD.
They obviously have no idea that people who choose MAiD are the same people – people dying of terminal illness – that also need palliative care.
Mark Connolly
