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Don’t choose Delta Hospice if you’re looking for MAiD

Editor: After reading the Jan. 23 edition of the Optimist I once again see the Ministry of Health and Fraser Health bullying yet another health care facility in Delta.

Editor:

After reading the Jan. 23 edition of the Optimist I once again see the Ministry of Health and Fraser Health bullying yet another health care facility in Delta.

I am a taxpayer like everyone else and I do not support the ministry’s position on pulling funding if Delta Hospice does not comply by Feb. 3.

Don’t get me wrong on this issue of assistance in dying; I am a supporter of MAiD and glad that people now have this option to choose when to end their life. Medical Assistance in Dying is a touchy subject for many and the decisions to have any intervention in dying are not a simple ones. These choices are made long before one’s final days.

It is not a simple and easy decision and this is the piece I have issue with. If anyone is going down this path they have already had discussions with their medical practitioner. So why can’t this intervention happen prior to one winding up at the hospice?

I really believe that anyone winding up at Delta Hospice knows this is the end of their journey. So why force a facility that offers such comfort not only to the dying, but also to the living, to now go against everything it believes in?

I have experienced their compassion first hand with the passing of my mother. I only wish the facility were here when my dad passed. Everyone I talk to has no issue with Delta Hospice and its stand on MAiD.

I really can’t believe that Delta Hospice has asked anyone to pack their bags and leave on their final days. I know there are decisions that take place before anyone is admitted to the hospice and those decisions should very clearly involve one’s final wishes.

Paul Barrett