(LifeSiteNews.com) – Dying patients who want to "shorten their lives" can and do change their minds, and safeguards are needed to prevent "premature deaths," an expert in palliative care told a special joint committee on physician-assisted death Wednesday.

Dr. Monica Branigan of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians said that one such safeguard could be a waiting period "proportionate to the amount of time" the patient "may lose in [his] living." CONTINUE