Everyone Wants a Good Ending

Part 2 of 2 posts on controversial  medical/social issues.

I am an employee at a Catholic hospital for the first time in my career. I was a physiotherapy intern here for two months before my graduation when nuns still lived in the building. 

"Staff at St. Mary’s continue to live the mission of compassion and respect that is the legacy the hospital’s founders, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton. During the early years at St. Mary’s, the sisters lived onsite, held all key administrative roles and ran the kitchen, making butter tarts and jam and serving a hot breakfast to staff at the end of a night shift." (source)

 There is a lovely chapel on the third floor and I sometimes sit there during my break. Masses are on hold during the pandemic but the chaplain's office is at the entrance.  

Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in 2016 and broadened the criteria for voluntary euthanasia further this year. Like abortion, this provision under Canadian law is very controversial and it met significant resistance from faith groups in its inception. Faith-based hospitals are exempt from providing either of these procedures, but must refer people to other doctors or hospitals at a patient's request. Since 2017, three of my patients have requested and received MAID, and the circumstances of each person has been unique. Two of them would have died if the machines they depended on for life, breathing support and renal dialysis, had been removed. They chose an injection over a slower death and it is not my place to judge them for their decisions. There were 13,946 reported MAID deaths in Canada between 2016 and 2019.(source)

It is vitally important to make a living will and designate a Power of Attorney for personal care before they are needed. My husband and I have done this and have had discussions with our daughters about our wishes in the event we become critically ill or incapacited. No one wants to exist without some quality of life, but there are options for care outside of MAID. 

This is my favourite stained glass window in the hospital chapel. It brings to mind the words of the psalmist in Psalm 91. 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge...

A recent patient had MAID this week and their obituary was in the paper yesterday. It spoke of a supportive family, faith in God, and lifetime accomplishments inspite of a life-long progressive disability.o This person did not come to their decision lightly, and whether I agree with that decision or not, I see them in the nest under the wings of the Almighty.