Brett Belchetz: For some, palliative care simply does not alleviate pain
On Feb. 4, Barbara Kay wrote a column for the National Post titled “No one really wants euthanasia.” Suffering people want an end to their pain. As a full-time emergency physician, I have worked...
View ArticleAn Old Saying
Life is a good place to be with our husbands or wives and children around us. We go day to day enjoy
View ArticleOutlaws and Insights: On Reflective Nursing Practice
The faces of illness and death can make us small. As nurses, we become large again at the intersecti
View ArticleSupreme Court ruling on assisted suicide last obstacle for Quebec's Bill 52,...
Canada’s top court’s historic ruling removing the ban on doctor-assisted suicide was clearly inspired by the Quebec debate, a teary-eyed Véronique Hivon, the architect behind Quebec’s “right-to-die”...
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Hope And A Prayer
The nurse rapped twice on the door before pulling herself into my room. She was not a very good-looking woman, though she tried very hard to conceal it under the layers of make-up that caked her broad...
View ArticleDoctor-assisted suicide
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of doctor-assisted suicide for people with termin
View ArticleCoyne: Crossing the Rubicon, the Supreme Court covers its eyes
One measure of the eerie complacency of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) — the euthanasia case — is that it spends more time on the question of where to award the costs...
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The Fall of a Pear
A fall pear in my basket at the market, lay colored with red covering its green. I always loved those red pears, my favorite in the fall; and so I splurged paying the higher price for a taste. I...
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Canadians debate who will be eligible for assisted suicide
The husband of Gillian Bennett, who attracted worldwide attention when she ended her own life on top
View ArticleHuman rights advocates applaud assisted suicide decision
With a country deeply divided on a controversial Supreme Court of Canada decision to decriminalize doctor-assisted suicide, Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann will seek to raise the issue in the...
View ArticleJuly 7, 2014 to February 7, 2015
2/7/15 Have you lost someone you love recently? Do others tell you how you should be ‘getting over it’? Well, today mark’s the seven month anniversary of the loss of my very good friend’s partner of...
View ArticleCorbella: This slippery slope leads to Holland and Belgium
Mark this day of infamy down in your calendars. Remember it. Friday, February 6, 2015. Think of it as the tip of the stern deck on the Titanic, just as the bow end starts to sink. The orchestra is...
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Shaking up the system inertia
First blog here in an age, so happy new year everyone! This week has seen the publication of two reports into the appalling standards of care for learning disabled people in the UK. The National Audit...
View ArticleLetters: Mixed views on Supreme Court's ruling on assisted dying
I can look forward to a dignified end of life Re: Assisted dying: Elation and alarm at top court’s ruling, Feb. 6. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that the right to control our bodies extends...
View ArticleDeath, Dying and Living Well
We learn from our parents and elders. While we are children they directly teach us how to walk, talk, tie our shoes, get along with others, etc. Less directly they continue to teach us throughout our...
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Turning Sixty
Over the past few years, I’ve begun to feel age. I feel it when I turn my left arm sideways to grab something or when I extend it over my over my head (torn rotator cuff), but I decided to live with...
View ArticleThe death of Ivan Ilych
“Lev Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana”, 1908, the first color photo portrait in Russia.
View ArticleThe Importance of Outside Interests
As social workers we have potentially overpowering jobs. Not that other people don’t experience work-related stress, but we in the helping professions live our daily lives inside relationships of...
View ArticleReflections on mortality
Brief Reflections on My Own Mortality By Ken K. Gourdin I just returned from the memorial service of a longtime friend of mine and my family’s. I went to school with her for quite a few years. In...
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