By Adriana Christianson

More dying Canadians need better end-of-life care

Feb 7, 2015 | 11:32 AM

One retired Saskatchewan doctor says he thinks asking a doctor to kill a person should not be allowed under law, instead advocating for better access to palliative care and treating pain at the end of life.
 
Speaking only from his personal experience treating people who were dying, Dr. Lawrence Clein of Regina says he believes the Supreme Court was wrong in the decision to recognize a person’s right to doctor-assisted death.
 
“I have given it a lot of thought and I am afraid I have to disagree entirely with the Supreme Court’s Decision. I think it is wrong and I think it is the wrong alternative,” he said.
 
Clein retired from practice in Regina but he formerly served as executive director of palliative care for the Regina Qu’appelle Health Region. He spent years treating people at the end of their lives. In that time, he encountered several people who asked to die.
 
“We had several patients who were depressed and said they wanted to die and I have subsequently treated their depression and I have subsequently had patients who have said no, they don’t want to be killed.”

Dennis Coutts is the executive director of Regina Palliative Care Inc. and the Greystone Bereavement Centre. The organization provides funding and support to improve medical care and counseling services in the RQHR for people who are dying and their families.
 
The group is hoping the Supreme Court Decision will also open up more public discussion about the need to improve palliative care as an alternative to doctor assisted suicide.  Coutts says they are advocating to improve the quality of palliative care to ease suffering for people at the end of their lives, because right now the system isn’t good enough.
 
“Saskatchewan has 1.1 million people and we have only one hospice in the province and that is operated here in Regina with 10 beds,” Coutts said. “Seventy per cent of Canadians don’t have access to good end of life care.”
 
Coutts would not comment directly on where the organization stands in terms of the right to die, saying that is a very personal decision for any individual.
 
On a personal level, Clein has strong opinions about any move toward any kind of euthanasia. Even with the requirement to have a person’s full consent, he worries that it would be a slippery slope towards other people deciding on their behalf.
 
“I’ve been dead against it since Hitler mandated that everybody who wasn’t fit to live should be killed,” he commented.
 
Clein says asking a doctor to assist in someone’s death goes against the hypocratic oath to do no harm. Instead, he firmly believes more doctors should be able to study ways to manage pain. He also people need to better access to good end of life care and pain management to ease their suffering.
 
“They have a right to be allowed to die, and I think that is one of the problems physicians have to face,” Clein said. “But I don’t think people have a right to die or be killed.”

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