A Canadian “death doula” is aiming to raise money to fund her personalised euthanasia and assisted suicide service in Ontario.
Founder and Executive Director of Journey Home for Empowered Living and Dying, Renee Moor, a so-called “death doula”, said her organisation is looking to raise $500,000 to move to a new place that can accommodate a “sanctuary”, where people can die by euthanasia or assisted suicide in “private, home-like rooms”. A death doula is a person who acts in “a non-medical role and as a supporter/guide/advocate in end-of-life care”.
Moor explained that the sanctuary is “a place where death is not a medical event”, adding that hospitals are “a bit more institutionali[s]ed” and “not everyone wants [an assisted suicide or euthanasia] experience in their home”.
Moor wants to open her sanctuary in Ontario, a place that made headlines last year after members of a key assisted suicide and euthanasia review committee found that vulnerable people were facing “undue influence” and “potential coercion”. Some members of the committee said that discussing assisted suicide and euthanasia with socially vulnerable people may “confirm an impression that their life is not worth living”.
Earlier this year, Ontario GP Dr Ramona Coelho, a member of the committee, said Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide programme was “out of control”, adding “I wouldn’t even call it a slippery slope. Canada has fallen off a cliff”.