The Council of Canadians with Disabilities reported mid-June that two Canadians with disabilities, Rhonda Wiebe and Jim Derksen, appeared before the House of Commons Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care to appeal for understanding and proper treatment of people with disabilities.
They referred to their late colleague Manitoban Mike Rosner who had been admitted for pneumonia but instead doctors offered to “make him comfortable while nature took its course,” Wiebe, Chair of CCD’s Ending of Life Ethics Committee, recounted.
The group appealed to the public, for legislation and policy-makers to “challenge the labels, to preserve our dignity and challenge how others see us,” according to Wiebe.
They opposed legalization of assisted suicide, opposed the Manitoba College of Physicians and Surgeons Statement on Withdrawing and Withhold Life Sustaining Treatment which they viewed as a feeble excuse for the lack of ability to treat patients with disability, sought for greater participation in the education of medical professionals in order to change stereotyped perception of people with disabilities, as well as improvement of health and palliative care services through removal of barriers in the access of personal care attendants and technical aids.
