The deVeber Institute
for Bioethics and Social Research

Quebec physicians who are proposing legal euthanasia misleadingly equate the use of analgesics for pain relief with euthanasia. Palliative care involves taking care of the patient unto death. It involves appropriate pain relief, but does not kill the patient and should not be confused with euthanasia. The legitimate medical practise of palliative care allows a person to die with a sense of dignity and respect, by caring for the person’s physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. Rather than proposing euthanasia, the Quebec College of Physicians could invest more resources into palliative care, which allows the dying to live the best that they can while they're dying.

Click on the attachment to see a two part article written by the pioneering palliative care nurse and deVeber Institute Advisor, Jean Echlin.

Part 1:  A Real Danger
Part 2:  Real Hope for the Dying

Originally published October 28th, 2008.

“I want to live!”

Mary was 12 years old when she presented at my office in 1971 with a Wilm’s tumour of her kidney, which had spread to her liver and lungs. She had only a 10% chance of a long-term remission with chemotherapy and surgery. Understandably, her parents were upset, and given the serious side effects that I described, they questioned the reason for treatment with such a poor prognosis. However, they finally agreed to her treatment.