Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Dr Balfour Mount |
Dr. Mount was born in Ottawa. He studied medicine at Queen’s University in Ontario, then specialized in urology at McGill University in Montreal and in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the United States.
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| Balfour Mount and Cicily Saunders |
In the 1970s, Dr. Mount traveled to the United Kingdom to learn more about end-of-life care, notably from Dr. Cicely Saunders, who created the hospice movement, which is in some ways the basis of the palliative care we know today.
Upon his return in 1975, Dr. Mount founded the world’s first comprehensive palliative care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre.
The following year, he established the McGill University Biennial International Congress on Terminal Care, which he chaired until 2004.
He continued to be closely involved with McGill University in the 1990s, notably by becoming the Eric M. Flanders Chair in Palliative Medicine and then the founding director of McGill’s Holistic Care Program.
Today, his legacy in the field of palliative care is undeniable. According to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, in 2015, 67 per cent of acute care hospitals with more than 50 beds in North America had palliative care teams.
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| Balfour Mount Canada Post stamp |
Barbara Kay, in her article, Euthanasia is Killing, that was published in November 2014, commented on Balfour Mount's opposition to euthanasia by writing:Q: You have explained the demands and rewards in setting up palliative care services and how our healthcare system is currently failing to support the implementation of palliative care in many instances. Now the bill permitting medial aid in dying has been passed. What would you say to people who support medical aid in dying?
A: The first thing I would say is that the very name of that intervention, “medical aid in dying”, is misleading rhetoric. Medical aid in dying is what I have been doing for 50 years. This bill is not talking about medical aid in dying really, it is not talking about ending the suffering, but instead, ending the sufferer. We are talking about legalizing killing people. We have to be clear what this is. I am totally in favour of medical aid in dying. I have spent my professional life working toward that end. But, I do not support euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Q: Can you talk about what you mean by medical aid in dying.
A: The chartered accountant that I admitted on the palliative care unit is an example that comes to mind. He came in with his wife. He had advanced cancer. They were lovely, articulate people and a devoted couple with two adult sons. She said, “I’ll speak for my husband because he has suffered terribly, he is so tired and we really want this to end.” I said, “I am glad you are here, give me a few days to get to know what this suffering is about and then let’s sit down again.” Later that afternoon, after his wife had left the PCU, I went to his bedside for a visit and after chatting for a while said “You know, I don’t see you as a person who wants to die. I see you as a person who wants to live but without the discomfort you have had”, and then this man in his late 50s started to cry. He said, “You are right but I don’t want to be a burden to my wife,” to which I responded, “It can be a big job to care for people at home, but that’s why we have a Palliative Care Unit. Your wife and your sons can come in when they feel up to it. You are not a burden for us. You are why we are here.” His comfort levels and quality of life were superb within a day or two. There was no more talk about his desire for death. There was talk about what interested him and the sources of his quality of life. We had removed his fear of being “a burden”. Every time I see the words “medical aid in dying”, I think of him. Medical aid in dying was what this gentleman received, but it was certainly not euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Dr. Mount’s passionate disdain for the medicalization of euthanasia remains undimmed. Calling euthanasia “medical aid in dying” is a “cowardly distortion of language,” he said. The dying do not want to be killed; they want an “easy death,” and “that is what palliative care gives them.”CBC news reported Dr Mount as stating at a Physicians Alliance for the Total Refusal of Euthanasia conference in May 2013 that:
"Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide makes it necessary for a society to legalize killing — ending life. It's a switch in goals," he told a crowd that gathered in downtown Montreal on Saturday to unite against the practice.Dr Mount, in his reflections in Le Devoir on February 1, 2010 wrote:
The last weeks of life are "the most precious time of family life" because this is when people resolve the unresolved cases where we can say the love and attachment that is brought to the family. "This is an important moment of sharing that can soften the death of the person who is dying and who can make the next 40 years calmer and happier for those who survive. This time holds tremendous potential that is lost if the person were euthanized,"
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| Dr Ferrier, Balfour Mount award |
Balfour Mount was a sign of hope for our times. We need to listen to and learn from his wisdom and experience.
We mourn his death, but we also mourn that our country did not follow his path of providing care and rejecting killing.
