This week is Canada’s first-ever “National Health Ethics Week” (NHEW). Read the abbreviation out loud – it even sounds like “new”!
NHEW runs from March 2 to March 8, 2014. There will be organizations joining in from all across the country. Clinics, hospitals, universities, and other types of healthcare groups will take part.
The 2 organizers of NHEW are the Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS) and the Nova Scotia Heath Ethics Network (NSHEN).
Why are we having a National Health Ethics Week? We’re hoping to
- Raise awareness of ethics issues in healthcare – from coast to coast and from border to coast
- Help explain what services and support are available, for healthcare ethics
- Start conversations, with regular Canadians, about current issues facing their communities.
A good example is end of life care. That’s sometimes called death with dignity, or even assisted suicide.
People working in bioethics often help governments make decisions about healthcare. This is called healthcare policy. We can help explain why some laws should be changed, or why new laws should be put in place. And sometimes we explain that healthcare laws are fine just the way they are.
Bioethics is also important for individual patients. And their families, loved ones, and caregivers. When my mom was terminally ill, and expected to die, she didn’t want to be hooked up to a breathing machine or anything.
She wanted something called a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order, while she was in the hospital. That piece of paper would tell the doctors and nurses to just let her go if she had another heart attack. She’d had more than 10 heart attacks by then. Bioethics is part of that, too.
Every day this week I’ll write a bit more about healthcare ethics.
If you’re interested, come back tomorrow!
To check for public NHEW events in your area, visit the website of the Canadian Bioethics Society:
https://www.bioethics.ca/national-health-ethics-week