Dear editor,
Reading Scott Stanfield鈥檚 article in The Record on the location of new hospice beds has prompted me to write this letter of support for a hospice that will NOT be located at St. Joseph鈥檚 Hospital site. I鈥檓 appalled enough that a hospital would deny people their legal right to choose MAiD (medical assistance in dying). Locating a long-term care facility and a hospice in a space where people will continue to be denied this right at the end of their lives is unacceptable.
I was initially quite enthusiastic about the plans to convert St. Joseph鈥檚 into a 鈥渃ampus of care鈥� for seniors and pleased that there would be such a place in Comox where I could live out my twilight years. But after hearing a presentation by Dr. Jonathan Reggler at Comox United Church, and reading the articles in the newspaper, I realized that if I was a resident in the new iteration of St. Joseph鈥檚 I would be denied the option of ending my life in a dignified way.
It is vital that a new long-term care facility with a hospice attached is not built on a site owned by the Catholic Church, or any other faith-based organization that denies people a medically assisted death.
Cathie Talbot
Comox
