Dying With Dignity Canada has been celebrating its 40th anniversary as one of the premier secular and human rights organizations in Canada. It’s premised on the idea of the right to choose when and how we die in a dignified manner, e.g., in the cases of some incurable or inoperable disease.
As a mostly secular oriented organization, its premise differs from some in the religious communities founded on different principles and ideas. One of those is the idea of the god owning the body of the individual, i.e., the individual does not own their own body.
Within this, the idea of a suicide, or, rather, a rational suicide, becomes anathema to the states of faith in much of the country. To take one’s own life in its end into one’s own hand is to take that which, ultimately, does not belong to you, the individual, your life belongs to the deity.
On its 40th anniversary or in the wake of its celebration, Dying With Dignity Canada had a fundraising goal and is celebrating reaching over the $20,000 target for the raising of funds. Based on an anonymous donor, it is going to be matched dollar for dollar.
The donor will be matching, now, up to $40,000 until July 8. The Dying With Dignity Canada community of supporters is stated to span as far as 65,000 supporters in Canada.
The Dying With Dignity Canada CEO, Helen Long, stated, “Actually, our team had been in conversation about cutting back on some of our plans for 2020, since COVID-19 related disruptions have unfortunately had a negative impact on our recent fundraising. But this overwhelming response from supporters like you means we can be even more ambitious in the next six months.”
They want to utilize this boost in what was expected to be a fundraising downturn for “province-specific Advance Care Planning Kits.” The funding would permit the kits to be used more widely. The informational kits can give factual information to Canadians to ensure their knowledge of the rights and the end of life options for them.
“Additional funding would also make it possible to share our message about fairer access to assisted dying with new supporters, and advance some of our urgent campaigns that seek to break down barriers and fix flaws in the current legislation,” Long stated, “Even after 40 years, and some very significant advancements, I know we can — and must — have even more impact on expanding the right to a peaceful death. We are confident that these additional funds will enable us to go even further, faster.”
With files from Dying With Dignity Canada.
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash