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Canadians Want Family to Make Life-or-Death Call
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in Canada believe the final decision on whether to remove a patient in a vegetative state from life support should not be in the hands of doctors or judges, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 68 per cent of respondents think a family member should make the call.
Earlier this year, doctors at Calgary’s Foothills Hospital issued a "do-not-resuscitate" order after patient Zongwu Jin fell into a coma. Jin’s family convinced a judge to lift the order, and Jin has since regained consciousness—although resuscitation was neither needed, nor performed. The Calgary Health Region has appealed the judge’s decision, claiming it could undermine the authority of physicians to make life-and-death pronouncements without the interference of the courts.
Canada’s Criminal Code states, under Section 215, that every person is "under a legal duty to provide necessaries of life to a person under his charge if that person is unable, by reason of detention, age, illness, mental disorder or other cause, to withdraw himself from that charge, and is unable to provide himself with the necessaries of life."
In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a representation agreement allows a person to grant another individual with the power to make decisions on a variety of issues, including treatment options and life support.
Polling Data
In your view, who should make the final decision on whether to remove a patient in a vegetative state from life support?
|
A family member |
68% |
|
A doctor |
15% |
|
A judge |
2% |
|
Not sure |
15% |
Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,057 Canadian adults, conducted on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, 2007. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
