The Canadian Medical Association, in partnership with Maclean’s, wants you to pose questions or offer comments in an online chat about end-of-life issues.
We’ve also been hosting a series of public town hall meetings across the country.

This is a chance for anyone who hasn’t been able to attend in person to engage directly with Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, the CMA’s president—he’s here to respond.

“We need to hear more from Canadians about how their health care system can ensure not only a long, healthy life but also a good death,” he’s said.

We’re hoping to focus today’s conversation around three big themes:

1. advance care directives

2. palliative care

3. physician-assisted dying

The first item—advance care directives—is about planning and communicating with family members about your end-of-life care wishes. How far do you want doctors to go to keep you alive?

The second—palliative care—is a pressing issue, since as few as 16 per of Canadians who die this year will have access to good quality palliative care where they live. What’s needed, and how should we pay for it?

And the third—physician-assisted death—is obviously a hot-button issue. It has prompted the most passionate responses at our town halls.

So now it’s your turn. The CMA sees a national crisis around end-of-life care. There’s no harder subject to talk openly about—but we need to have that conversation to find solutions. Dr. Francescutti is eager to engage with you right here at 1 p.m. ET.

THE CHAT

More on the end-of-life debate:

• Dave Lambert’s brush with death
• Gloria Jean Taylor, 1948-2012
• Who has the right to pull the plug?
• The fight for the right to die
• On the need for the debate on assisted suicide
• Maclean’s Interview: Bernice Packford