Officials with Nipissing Serenity Hospice say four local doctors advocating for the hospice to allow medically assisted death are entitled to their opinion.

Hospice board chair Vivian Papaiz tells BayToday they’re managing the hospice in the best way they know how and welcome public input.

She also says the board has researched the issue for several years.

“For them hospice palliative care, and that’s really a type of care, is really about preserving life and giving people the best quality of life until the day they die, it’s not about hastening death,” she says.

Papaiz also says there’s a lot of opportunity in the community to access medically assisted death, including the hospital, at home or long-term care.

Dr. Mike Leckie says they have been quietly working for months, if not years, to see the new hospice allow medically assisted death.

He tells BayToday they only speak for themselves and contend medically assisted death is legal and the hospice is mostly a publicly funded building.

He says it’s a philosophical issue and believes it’s a part of palliative care for patients.

“We’d hate to see them have to be moved back home or back to the hospital to access medically assisted death, so we’re speaking out, we’re advocating for our patients,” he says.

Dr. Leckie says over 100 services have been done quietly in North Bay.

He also says this is a hospice board decision and is not a legal matter.

Check out BayToday.ca for the full story.

 

(File photo by Linda Holmes/BayToday.ca)

Filed under: Medically assisted death, Nipissing Serenity Hospice