Yesterday, Quebec introduced its euthanasia bill. Euthanasia is currently a criminal act, though Quebec is trying to work around the Criminal Code by declaring it health care. From Wesley Smith:
As I understand the Canadian system, all hospitals, nursing homes, etc., are publicly funded, part by the province and part by the federal government. This would appear to mean that every taxpayer in Canada will be underwriting euthanasia, and moreover, that the provincial government of Quebec will require the killing of patients to be allowed in all publicly funded hospitals, residential care facilities and nursing homes.
Assisted suicide and intentional homicide are crimes in Canada, under the federal criminal code. But the provinces are in charge of regulating medicine. So, Quebec seeks to get out from under the federal criminal laws by redefining euthanasia as health care, e.g., the medical treatment of “aid in dying.”
If this becomes law, it will be a disaster for our country of epic proportions, but I’ll save that rant for another day. However, the “safeguards” put in place to ensure that people aren’t euthanized against their will, etc, will surely be watered down in years to come, as has happened in other countries that have permitted the practice. Our friend Alex Schadenberg explains,
Some call it a “slippery slope” and others call it an incremental extension, nonetheless, doctors appear to be breaking the law by killing, by euthanasia, children with disabilities, such as spina bifida.
Smith states that if assisted suicide is accepted, the same will occur in the United States.
In Canada we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that recognizes that we are all equal under the law. Therefore, legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide in Canada will logically be extended, through the court, to all Canadians. You can’t have a little euthanasia.
Disabled babies are already being euthanized in the Netherlands are part of the Groningen Protocol. Let me tell you – the Netherlands’ euthanasia laws had plenty of safeguards in place when the country legalized the practice years ago. Then they were watered down as Alex explains above. Now babies are being euthanized. Like Fido, the family pet.
And children will be euthanized in Belgium as well, another country that has legalized euthanasia. The country debated the matter this past week.
In the wake of several months of testimony from doctors and experts in medical ethics, a Belgian Senate committee will on June 12 examine the possible extension of the country’s euthanasia law to include children.
“On both sides of the linguistic border, liberals and socialists appear to agree on the fact that age should not be regarded as a decisive criteria in the event of a request for euthanasia,” notes De Morgen. They want doctors to decide on a minor’s capacity for discernment on a case by case basis.
Not only do we need to worry about abortion taking our young, as well as rocking our families and societies, now we’ll need to worry about euthanasia doing the same.
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What is the Canadian Medical Association saying about this? I can’t imagine that there are a whole hord of doctors chomping at the bit, waiting in the wings and ever-so-ready to off their patients. When Smith here says that euthanasia will be performed in every hospital, I wonder how that is going to work if there aren’t the doctors there willing to perform the deed. I wonder just how Quebec will manage to institute euthanasia without trampling on the conscience rights of its doctors.
Good point, Melissa. On CBC yesterday I caught an interview with a doctor saying he’s uncomfortable with it.
Apparently they are discussing creating specialized teams of people, not necessarily doctors, to do the deed. I’m behind in my euthanasia reading. When I have a source document, I might write a brief post about it.
Great. So now we are going to have trained executioners in Canada. I wonder how they would be answering the question “so, what do you do?” at cocktail parties.
Doctors are generally in favor of ‘euthanasia’ – Maclean’s 2009 article: 75% of Quebec Doctors favor ‘a legal framework for accelerating a patient’s demise’.
Doctors in Canada changed the Hippocratic oath in 1972 to remove the ‘do no harm’ phrase.
Holland and Belgium show approximately 1 out of 3 ‘euthanasia’s’ are done without consent.
I think it is Holland that now has a provision for assisted suicide for ‘depressed’ youth and is looking at termination legislation for children.
Youth statistics show the more suicide is ‘newsworthy’, un-journalistically described in flowery and sympathetic terms, the greater the incidence of youth suicides.
Polls show the public is generally in favor of euthanasia however the questions that are asked of the public are skewed to vote in favor of euthanasia. The poll might ask; ‘Are you in favor of medical assistance for end of life for patients that have terminal/unbearable pain? Rather than saying;’ Are you in favor of giving doctors the legal power to kill someone?’. Remember Germany made things better for everyone in terminating ‘useless eaters’, the burdensome and those whose lives weren’t worth extending.
When Pope John Paul spoke of the ‘Culture of Death’ he picked the word ‘culture’ intentionally and with understanding.
There is positive news.
There is a strong response from palliative care doctors in Quebec who point out that almost all pain can be alleviated, palliative care has been underfunded in Quebec and that almost all patients stop ‘wanting to die’ when appropriate palliative care is available.
Another positive is yesterday’s CBC poll which asked; ‘Should medically assisted suicide be legal in Canada?’ (and did not ask; ‘Should more be done to held people choose life instead of suicide?’). Initial results showed 2 out of 3 Canadians said ‘yes’ but today that has switched to 66% saying no to medically assisted suicide’.
We have always let people die. We have always stopped giving treatments when there was no life giving purpose. We all remember hearing things like; ‘There is nothing more that can be done.’, ‘Let nature take it’s course.’, and ‘It is in God’s hands.’. The point is is this push for euthanasia legislation is different. There is no good in it. It is about killing. It is not needed – care is needed.
I wonder, if you were to poll doctors, how many of them would say that a legal framework is necessary for abortion… Just because 75% of doctors say there should be a framework doesn’t mean that 75% of doctors are willing to participate in euthanasia.
This is what I don’t understand. I don’t think there has been a case in Canada where a doctor has been prosecuted for performing euthanasia. (Correct me if I’m wrong). Why is it such a bad thing if this stays in the closet? I mean, the only time a doctor is going to be hauled up on the carpet for this is if there is significant outrage among the family of the deceased. (And, as the case of Annie Farlow shows us, it is iffy whether or not even outrage among the family of the deceased is enough to get a proper investigation.)
Doctors here are looking for the law to assuage their guilty consciences. This is the kind of thing that you can’t properly legislate–this is pretty much the definition of heading down a steep slippery slope. Really, if a doctor euthanizes a patient, he’s going to sign the death certificate, and the only time anyone is going to question it is if either a nurse or a family member raises a stink. And if that doctor can live with his conscience, there’s not much any of us can do about it. What goes on between a doctor and his patient really is a private affair. If the doctor is doing something that falls toward the illegal side of the spectrum, the typical public is not going to know.