Introduction to Health Policy Strategy

 
Physical-assisted death continues to be a topic that brings a lot of controversy and divides opinions among general public. Recently, the media has reported that Canada’s Supreme Court made a unanimous decision to repeal national laws which criminalize doctors who are willing to aid patients who seek to die. This ruling concludes many decades of legal struggles between patients, doctors, and civil right organizations who favored legalization of physician-assisted death and government lawyers who argued that physician-assisted death poses danger to lives of the most vulnerable patients (Webster, 2015). Albeit patients rights to refuse medical treatment or demand removal of medical life support equipment, legalizing physician-assisted death brings a completely new perspective on the role of doctors and other health professionals in caring for human life and well-being. Apart from physicians, professional nurses and other healthcare professionals are also greatly affected by these new policies. They participate in delivering care for dying patient and might also be involved in physician-assisted dying procedures. This paper will discuss the development health policy for physician-assisted dying from the perspective of a healthcare professionals’ organization. The development of this health care policy would involve multiple stakeholders during several stages in its development.

Background
Discussions about legalizing physician-assisted dying can be traced all the way back to the late 1800s. Despite being a relatively old topic, only in 1997 did this medical practice become officially legalized in Oregon, USA. Soon other countries and states like the Netherlands (2002) and California (2015) followed. Now with Canada included, there are 13 jurisdictions which have effective laws that legalize or decriminalize physician-assisted dying. Canada joined this list after a legal case Carter v. Canada which began in 2011. This case first started in the Supreme Court of British Columbia (BA)’s, only to progress to the BA Court of Appeal in 2012, and end in front of the judges of Canada’s Supreme Court in 2014. After assisting a family member to be admitted to a suicide clinic in Switzerland, the Carter claimants legally questioned Canada’s laws which prohibit physician-assisted suicide attempts.