Oh wow, time flies.
While I was cleaning out my papers in the office on Sunday, I came across my PhD application documents and I realized that it's about that time for me to get moving on my applications this year. Which means it's time to re-tool my proposed thesis work because if there's one thing I do know, it's that there are few options available in Canada for studying end-of-life decisions.
Back in 1994, Russel Ogden, a MA Criminology student at Simon Fraser University (one of my alma maters) was studying assisted suicide among persons suffering from HIV/AIDS, and his ethics proposal noted he offered his informants absolute confidentiality. His research and thesis proceeded, but once it was done, he became the first researcher in Canada to be subpoenaed by the Coroner because they wanted to know what he knew about a death. He refused to testify, and was eventually vindicated, but not before the SFU administration and ethics committee virtually abandoned him.
Since that time, the ethics committees have come to be guided by, in my opinion, a fairly conservative Tri-Council policy which scares most supervisors away from supervising students wanting to look at assisted suicide or medically hastened death in Canada. I know this because I originally proposed a Master's capstone project on the issue and was adamantly warned off it by my supervisor. Instead I went with organ donation rates in Canada.
Now, in light of the BC court decision in the Taylor case, what is really needed is academic study into the policy development and implications of a right to die law. I just have serious doubts that the academic world is prepared to move ahead and catch up with public opinion on this one, which is no better than the refusal of politicians to address the issue. Without proper study, the issue will never be adequately addressed, and poor policy could result from the dearth of academic, peer-reviewed study.
But I'll keep trying.
Determination...
...Wish you were here.
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