‘Dying with dignity’ has been supported by many members of Unitarian Fellowships across Canada—for over thirty years
It’s your life and it should be your choice as to how and when you die. That’s what British Columbia resident Gloria Taylor believed. That’s why Taylor, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease, took her case for the right to die to the B.C. Supreme Court. She won that battle. Now, Gloria Taylor has died, of natural causes. Gloria’s mother, Anne Fomenoff, said of her daughter’s passing, “Gloria was able to live her final days free from the fear that she would be sentenced to suffer cruelly in a failing body.”
But the federal government is appealing the court’s decision. A British Columbia couple, Lee Carter and Hollis Johnson, have confirmed to The Globe and Mail that they will help to continue the fight for the right to die with dignity. The married couple travelled to a Switzerland clinic in 2010 when Ms. Carter’s mother, Kay, decided to end her life.
Wanda Morris, executive director of an organization called Dying With Dignity, will be discussing these legal challenges and issues in a presentation and workshop at the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo this Sunday, October 14, 2012. Dying with Dignity was started more than 30 years ago at the First Unitarian Church of Toronto, and its membership includes many Unitarians from across Canada. Wanda Morris is a Unitarian and former lay chaplain.
We speak with Dying With Dignity executive director Wanda Morris, and with Reinie Heydemann, a member of First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo.
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