The ethical questions surrounding the doctor-assisted suicide were debated last week at Vancouver Island University.
Dr. Paul Kamill, a retired physician, and Dr. Oscar Clemotte, philosophy professor at VIU discussed the ethics of doctor-assisted suicide Thursday afternoon as part of a two-part speaking series hosted and moderated by Dr. Laura Shanner.Speaking to a capacity crowd at a lecture hall at the university, Clemotte shared his thoughts on the ethics regarding doctor-assisted suicide. He argued that it is not undignified to allow people to die without assisting in the death, adding that by allowing assisted suicide society is moving further away from being compassionate and caring."The most of the reasons given for wanting assisted suicide is not the fear of uncontrollable pain, but the fear of losing control of important bodily functions," he said. "By legalizing assisted suicide in Canada ... we are reinforcing the idea that is undignified to allow bodies to deteriorate."
Kamill said the health care system has to display compassion toward individuals and that doctor assisted suicide is a form of compassion."It is about compassion and that is the moral key to this," Kamill said. He cited the case of the Sue Rodriguez, the assisted suicide advocate who ended up killing herself in Victoria after losing a lengthy legal case to the Supreme Court of Canada. "Where was her equality?" Kamill said. Kamill said that he felt that doctors agreeing to conduct assisted suicide on a patient is merely a form of compassion toward a patient.
"There are some acts that just some of us cannot achieve for ourselves," Kamill said. "My intention is not to kill that patient, my intention is to do the best I can for that patient."The federal government is expected to legislate doctor assisted suicide within the year.Audience members had the opportunity to question the speakers. Among the main concerns was the potential slippery slope that could happen once doctor assisted suicide is legal. Part 2 of the VIU hosted forum takes place on April 21 at 4 p.m.