Heart to Heart with Adele: Dealing with death and dying

 Question: Dear Adele, We are living in extremely tough times as parents. We thought we had this parenting thing down pat, but the coronavirus pandemic has humbled us, mightily. Stories of death and dying are all over our television, in every newspaper and magazine we receive, and seemingly come up

Canada must learn lessons from Belgium on assisted dying legislation

 By Trudo Lemmens While we were debating in Canada the potential expansion to our Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law, a criminal trial concluded in Belgium against three physicians involved in the death of Tine Nys. Diagnosed in 2010 at age 37 with Asperger’s, Nys received MAID under Belgium’s liberal

Film Review: Annabelle

 Synopsis: Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker's possessed creation, Annabelle. Stars: Talitha Bateman, Miranda Otto, Lulu Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia Director: David F.

Remembrance Day

 Photo by Sofie Sharom. The Fields of Honour By Frank Baile Ranked by no rank, Lie the fallen, Testaments to a courage that, Few foreknew until that time. When something stirred in them, Like a sign, but more, That made each say, There must go I! Not all are here,

Is Waiting Longer for New Prescription Drug Approvals Necessarily a Bad Thing?

 Why Canada’s ‘slow and low’ approach to new pharmaceuticals may be the prudent approach. The newest report from Canada’s brand name drug makers on access to new drugs has one key message: compared to other countries, Canada goes slow and low.  New drugs are slower to be covered by our

What Do Canadians Need from Pension Reform?

 A gentle policy nudge to enhance coverage and pension contributions—here’s how.  Pension reform continues to hold interest across the country, especially given the willingness of the federal Conservatives to at least talk about expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Pundits and politicos are weighing in now with blunt talk of

Halloween

 On this night of all nights Of goblins and bats Wicked witches abound With ominous eyes And the blackest of cats On this spookiest of nights Evil specters alight In graveyards and towns And haunt weary souls With ghoulish delight Nearby on a hill Is a foreboding old place That

Is it Fair to Make a Public Appeal for a Live Organ Donor?

 The public response to the appeal on behalf of Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators hockey team, for a liver donor has been a heart-warming demonstration of the generosity of our community. Fortunately, a donor was found and the transplant was performed in time to save his life. But

The Vampire Bat

 Black as black As the night could be His shrieking call Was a mystery Like some spider In his dusty web The bat inspires Fear and dread With blood-red eyes And a serpent’s tongue He seeks out blood When the sun goes down With vampire’s teeth He traverses the night

Ambulance Fees are an Obstacle on the Road to Care

 Imagine you’re a physician seeing a six month old child in clinic. She has a fever and cough, she’s working hard to breathe and her oxygen levels are falling. You know she needs assessment in the emergency room and requires transportation in an ambulance in case her condition worsens en route.

When is it Okay for Doctors to Let Someone Die?

 By Dr. Charles J. Wright The long overdue public, medical, legal and political debate on end-of-life care is now well underway in Canada. Medical journals and the general press are commenting regularly on the subject, the Canadian Medical Association is changing its ethics guidelines, Quebec has decriminalized assisted dying and

Dying Badly in Canada

 Canadians now have a right to medically hastened death, but no right to quality palliative care A few days after the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the prohibition against doctor-assisted suicide, I received a note from a wonderful colleague of mine saying that her closest friend’s 53 year old son

Health Canada Fails to Enforce its own Rules on Pharmaceutical Advertising

 A handsome man struts over to the office water cooler with a smirk on his face. When his colleagues ask about his weekend, he replies enthusiastically, with audio muted. A large blue pill appears with the tagline, “Viagra, Ask Your Doctor.” Vibrant, energetic older people are shown swimming, bowling and

Learning How to Die – Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

 In his latest thoughtful, moving book Being Mortal: Medicine And What Matters in the End the doctor and writer Atul Gawande tells the achingly sad story of Sara. In the prime of life and while pregnant with her first child, Sara was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Doctors induced labour

Is it Time to Allow Assisted Suicide?

 Most Canadians do not have access to comprehensive palliative care This week, the Supreme Court of Canada has been hearing an appeal by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that could grant terminally ill Canadians the right to assisted suicide. With this impending ruling and the passing of Bill 52 in

Why Your Kid Shouldn’t Be Guzzling ‘Energy’ Drinks

 Anxiety, hypertension, elevated heart rates, interrupted sleep patterns and headaches are just some of the side effects commonly associated with energy drinks, and those problems are more pronounced in children, according to a recent University of Miami study. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These drinks have also

Canada Slow to Respond to Prescription Opioid Crisis

 In my first career as a pharmacist, I worked in more than 30 pharmacies across Nova Scotia, filling more than 100,000 prescriptions between 1990 and 1995. Some of these were for strong painkillers called opioids--drugs like morphine and oxycodone, which are chemically and biologically very similar to heroin. Back then,

Dying Well: Why We All Need to Have End of Life Conversations

 The last time I was in Israel, I went on some home visits with a palliative care physician in the town of Sfat near the Sea of Galilee. My colleague, a devout Jewish doctor, took me to several homes to offer advice on managing his most serious, terminally ill patients.

Heroes betrayed —The Merchant Seamen story

 By Cliff Chadderton It is mid-January of 1940 in "an East Canadian port." Canada is at war. The recruiting offices are open. You see a poster of a soldier in a tin hat. You recall the slaughter of the trenches in Flanders in World War I and mutter: "No thanks."