Juno News - June 16, 2022


Why aren't Conservatives pushing back against medically assisted suicide？


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

160.04903

Word Count

653

Sentence Count

24

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'm wondering if you can explain, because I think that the broader discussion kind of
00:00:05.860 gets tied up, people who oppose this way of dying and this idea that the government will
00:00:11.440 just sort of facilitate death if a patient asks for it.
00:00:15.060 I'm wondering if you could walk us through why you personally oppose this method, this
00:00:21.800 doctor-assisted suicide, why your group specifically decided to fight against it, because there's
00:00:26.520 so few voices and so few groups doing what the Delta Hospice Society did.
00:00:31.840 And in some ways, it's really inspiring to see what you're doing in other ways.
00:00:35.140 It's like, why isn't there pushback on this stuff from people all over the country?
00:00:39.220 So I'm wondering if you could just walk us through your views and then your society's
00:00:43.240 views as well.
00:00:44.700 Yeah, I mean, you know, ultimately, we wanted to stand for palliative care.
00:00:49.860 You know, we consider it to be a national treasure.
00:00:52.540 Not only that, but, you know, it's a gift to humanity.
00:00:56.520 Right.
00:00:57.020 When you go in a sort of sacrificing selfless way, take care of the most vulnerable among
00:01:03.540 us, you know, that is a, that's a noble cause.
00:01:07.140 That's something that this organization has spent 30 years uplifting and providing, you
00:01:15.280 know, and so what we have seen now is, you know, those people who would prefer a different
00:01:21.800 end of life experience, they, you know, we're not even going to say anything about that.
00:01:28.520 What we're going to say is, if that's what you want, then you go build it.
00:01:32.260 But what we find now happening is that this new political movement wants to walk in and
00:01:38.720 literally steal everything that we've created over the past 50 years, instead of going and
00:01:44.760 doing their own work.
00:01:45.640 You go fundraise, you go open your maid centers, right?
00:01:50.260 And you become then a choice to the public in terms of an end of life marketplace of services
00:01:57.060 available.
00:01:57.440 Because I'll tell you, we have many, many people who want the kind of services that we
00:02:01.740 provide.
00:02:03.100 So, no, they don't just get to have, you know, because they have a loud, obnoxious group of
00:02:09.320 people who are demanding to be killed, you know, on demand, that's fine, but we're not
00:02:16.260 going to fight you.
00:02:17.120 What I'm going to say to you is go do your own work, because the work that we have done
00:02:22.580 for the past 50 years is important.
00:02:26.180 People look to us.
00:02:27.660 They trust us to protect them.
00:02:29.780 And we are not going to just surrender, right, everything that we've created, because it will
00:02:38.040 be more convenient for you.
00:02:39.980 So, you go make your own spaces, and we'll have our spaces.
00:02:44.640 I mean, that's, you know, on principle, that is really one of the reasons why we fought so
00:02:48.740 hard.
00:02:50.320 You know, second is all that, you know, we have within palliative care a real respect for
00:02:55.500 the dignity of life, the sanctity of life to its natural end, and how much we can do to
00:03:03.700 provide people with an incredible ability to have time at their end of life, to have a
00:03:11.500 reconciliation with their loved ones, right, to be able to physically, emotionally accept
00:03:17.600 the next stage.
00:03:20.220 That's very important, because we can see the trauma that family members go through
00:03:25.420 when their loved ones just, they show up to see them when they're dead, they're gone.
00:03:29.620 They decided in the middle of the night, with, I will say, some influence of some healthcare
00:03:38.560 providers, that they should just put themselves out of this misery and not be a burden to their
00:03:43.160 families, and they're gone, right?
00:03:46.040 So, you know, we provide that experience of time to honor who we are as human beings, and
00:03:56.080 to give, you know, those people we love the opportunity to also be able to accept and to
00:04:01.780 heal before we say our ultimate goodbye.