Dear editor,
The past weeks I’ve read various opinions in our local newspapers on the new medical assistance in dying (MAiD) law that has recently been passed by our federal government. Though I am not a Catholic, I do encourage them to stand firm in their decision to not allow MAiD to be performed on their premises, St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Yes it may be true only 12 per cent of the population is Catholic and is supported by our public funds and private donations. Let’s not go there as the majority of us believe that most government decisions concerning where our funds go are influenced by minorities. Also, “were those individuals and businesses who made large donations,” as someone quoted, informed that MAiD was part of the support to which they were giving? MAiD is a new law.
Some have suggested that the hospice facility should be on a secular site. Well, may I suggest you be patient and proceed to build and fund your secular facility. In the meantime, honour the exceptional hospice care St. Joseph’s Hospital gives and continues to give. That seems to be the choice of one letter: “either the prohibition ends or a non-faith-based site is chosen by Island Health”.
Patience is a virtue as the scriptures say, even the approval of MAiD by the government didn’t happen overnight.
I believe the position of St. Joseph’s Hospital truly meets a good compromise, to transfer the patients to facilities of their choice, including at home where MAiD can be carried out by a physician. Comments in the paper seem to state that the employees at St. Joseph’s Hospital put the patients into a potato sack, throw them in the back of a pick-up truck and dispose of them as if they didn’t care. Comments written in many of the obituaries in our local newspapers claim this not to be true.
St. Joseph’s started and remains today as a faith-based organization, and has done and is doing a remarkably compassionate service to the Comox Valley. The issue is that our society has changed dramatically the past few years from one based on Christian moral values to a secular society that has run amuck. Try changing the moral values and beliefs of the many other minority religions to those of a secular society that receive government support and see how far you get.
Charlie Zerkee,
Courtenay