Cross-Cultural Dynamics in Palliative Care: The Emerging Canadian Scenario

Dalhousie Law Journal
Vol. 39, No. 2 (Fall 2016), pp. 455-469

As modern technologies leverage medical sciences, life expectancy is on the rise in Canada, and indeed globally, with a remarkable increase in the elderly population in need of health care. The same is true of the diversity of cultural groups who are now patrons and stakeholders in Canada’s health care landscape. An emergent feature of this landscape is the complexity of contexts for negotiating and mediating medical care delivery at the end of life. This paper examines the gaps in regulatory and legal interventions as well as the gaps and opportunities to negotiate the transition to palliative care in cross-cultural contexts that have the potential to escalate as Canada’s domestic health care system increasingly engages with non-dominant segments of Canada’s cultural mosaic at the end- of-life spectrum. It calls attention to the increased relevance of palliative care, identifying cross-cultural elements required for continuing and future elaboration of that care regime fully into the Canadian health care system.

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