By CKOM News

Sask. reaction to assisted death ruling

Feb 7, 2015 | 7:09 AM

A Supreme Court of Canada ruling against the current ban on doctor-assisted death has many reflecting on end-of-life care for the terminally ill.

For Bill Jones, Friday’s ruling was welcomed news. His wife, Deb Herman, suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. She was diagnosed in 1995. Jones said his wife’s quality of life has declined steadily. She’s now confined to a wheelchair and lives in constant pain.

“She’d go to sleep at night and then she would pray before she goes to sleep that she doesn’t wake up in the morning. When she wakes up in the morning she’s frustrated, not happy at all,” he said. 

The unanimous ruling gives the federal government a year to craft regulations allowing doctors to help terminally ill patients to die. Jones said Herman greeted the decision with relief.

“Knowing that she may have that option — you know, I hate to say this — but it kind of put a smile on her face,” he said.

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Others in the province are reflecting on lost loved ones who might have benefitted from a doctor-assisted death.

The high court’s ruling came too late for Collin Dragseth, who said his father died of ALS in 1993. He said his father came up with a plan when he was being treated in St. Paul’s hospital.

“He had stockpiled quite a bit of morphine for himself that he was going to administer later on if he felt that he couldn’t take it anymore,” Dragseth said.

But the disease took away his father’s ability to move before he could down the pills.

As his father’s condition continued to worsen, Dragseth said it left his family to have a heart-wrenching conversation.

None of them could bear to watch the intelligent, outgoing man they grew up with wither away, unable to speak, or move. He said they all agreed that it wasn’t what their father wanted.

“It came down to one of my sisters saying, if it came down to it, she would help my dad,” he said.

Dragseth is thankful that never had to happen. He said his father died unassisted a day after the talk.

He said the court ruling comes 19 years too late for his father. He said he wants to see Parliament move quickly to give other families the option his never had.

– With files from CKOM’s François Biber and Bryn Levy

news@panow.com 

On Twitter: @princealbertnow