Upgraded centre offering medical assistance in dying to reopen in B.C.

Photo: The Canadian Press

The Harold and Veronica Savage Centre for Supportive Care is pictured in Delta, B.C., Thursday, May 28, 2020. A hospice in Delta, B.C., is now in the possession of a health authority after a provincially funded society refused to provide medical assistance in dying based on religious grounds. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

A hospice in Delta, B.C., is now in the possession of a health authority after a provincially funded society refused to provide medical assistance in dying based on religious grounds.

Fraser Health says in a release that the Irene Thomas Hospice is being upgraded before reopening by April 15.

The health authority also took over the Harold and Veronica Savage Centre for Supportive Care and the surrounding lands after formally ending the service agreement and lease with the Delta Hospice Society.

Angelina Ireland, board president of the society that ran the 10-bed hospice, has maintained that providing a medically assisted death goes against the principles of Christianity.

However, other members of the community south of Vancouver argued the important end-of-life service is legal in Canada and should be offered to patients who want it.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says in a statement that access to hospice services is fundamental.

"That's what I hear regularly from people in Delta and across B.C. That is why there is strong support for the decision we have taken."