The New Brunswick Association for Community Living endorsing the Vulnerable Persons Standard, which proposes five categories of safeguards that should be applied when assessing people who request physician assisted dying.
Ken Pike is the Director of Social Policy. He says these safeguards need to be put in place because the law surrounding physician assisted dying is quite broad.
Pike says whether people are capable of giving consent, and if that’s being done voluntarily, there should be an independant panel that reviews applications for physician assisted suicide before it happens.
He says he’d like to see good public support for a strong system of safeguards before physician assisted dying takes place in New Brunswick.
Pike says these safeguards will protect people with medical conditions who would be vulnerable to the new changes that will take place in June.
He says people who have a certain medical condition could get to a point in their life where they don’t want to live anymore, but things change, and with the proper help and support people can move on to live a happy life.
