Dear editor,
Well-reasoned opinions have appeared in your publication on the vexing and difficult subject of medical assistance in dying. Dan Greene’s invective, discriminatory letter against the Catholic Church (Public purse held ransom by the Catholic church, April 6 Letter to the Editor), is forlornly based on half-truths and illogical sentiments.
Death will not escape anyone. The individual’s personal philosophy determines the approach and acceptance of life’s end. Tolerance and forbearance and respect for the array of sentiments require compromise.
Sober consideration of the significant role that St Joseph’s has played since its inception in 1913 is thus timely.
St Joseph’s has served the Comox Valley community exceptionally well since four Toronto nuns, responding to a call from Bishop MacDonald of Victoria, to meet the necessities of the Valley. An army training camp and the treatment of wounded soldiers during the First World War is also one of its notable attainments.
St Joseph’s has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the Provincial Government, its dedicated doctors and its medical staff, over the past century.
The property is owned by the Catholic Church, a faith based organization that requires the exclusion of activities counter to its beliefs. The principals on MAiD’s is not unique to the Catholic Church. They are shared by other faiths including agnostics. A Nanos Research/Globe and Mail poll in 2016 found that only 42.4 per cent disagreed with the Church’s view.
Canadian law on MAiD’s is NOT mandatory. Citizens uphold the right to choose between natural death and euthanasia.
Those opposed to MAiD’s are citizens and tax payers, whose visions are of equal import as those of its supporters. Large numbers of donors to St Joseph’s recognise its services to the community.
As alternatives to MAiD’s are available to those with dissenting views, “ransom” is not a rational and objective observation of the funding of St Joseph’s.
Alfons Muller
Courtenay