Group urging those diagnosed with dementia to make advanced requests for assisted death

Dying With Dignity Canada is urging Ottawa to allow people diagnosed with dementia to make advance requests for assisted death, while they’re still cognitively able to make the choice.

The organization says a new poll conducted by Ipsos Reid shows that the majority of Canadians are also in support of the right to consent in advance to physician-assisted dying.

“The poll showed that 85% of Canadians support the Supreme Court’s decision. Of those, 90% support allowing patients with a diagnosis of a grievous and irremediable medical condition to provide advance consent for physician-assisted dying,” said Shanaaz Gokool, DWDC’s National Campaigns Director and incoming CEO.

The poll also found that eight in 10 Canadians agree that individuals with a grievous and irremediable medical condition, including patients with dementia, should be permitted to consent to assisted death in advance.

“One of the main questions in the poll was do Canadians want the right to be able to give advance consent for physician-assisted death– and we knew from our own supporters that this was a really important issue for people. People want to be able to have an advanced consent so that they’re not left with the choice of either ending their lives horrifically and becoming bed-ridden or having to die too early because they know at some point they will lose competency,” said Gokool.

Gokool added that without that consent, they will be discriminated against and will not be able to ask for assistance. She said that this is an issue about equity, about access, and ultimately about access to justice.

“The announcement from the Supreme Court was fantastic, but we know that there’s still a lot of works that needs to be done to make sure that all Canadians have access to physician-assisted dying. The reason that this poll is so meaningful at this time is really an issue of competency– we want to ensure that large groups of Canadians that have a diagnosis of something like dementia, that while they are still competent are able to request physician-assisted death.”

The poll surveyed 2,530 Canadians across the country from all different demographics. Gokool said that through the findings, you can see that across the board — from all those different cultural and religious demographics– there is strong support for the initiative.

“We expected that the majority of Canadians agreed with this– but we didn’t think it would be 80 per cent. We think that speaks loud and clear that Canadians want choice.”

You can learn more about DWDC by clicking here.