Mary Zwicker, European Correspondent: The United Kingdom is in the midst of an ongoing battle to legalize assisted suicide. In October 2024, Labour party MP Kim Leadbeater introduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a Private Member’s Bill, which proposes to legalize assisted-suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults under certain conditions. The bill is now stalled in the [...]
Mary Zwicker, European Correspondent: Several lobbying groups are pushing the Canadian government to expand its Medical Assistance in Dying laws to include mature minors, citing various European countries as examples of how it could be done. “Sadly, once killing by euthanasia becomes a legal option the law will continue to expand,” said Alex Schadenberg, executive director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. “There is [...]
Paul Tuns: On March 18, Alberta Minister of Justice Mickey Amery introduced Bill 18, the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act, which, if passed, will restrict euthanasia in the province. Bill 18 would require individuals to have a 12-month terminal prognosis, thus limiting euthanasia in the province to Track 1 approval (those with a reasonably foreseeable death). By banning Track [...]
Paul Tuns: The Ontario coroner’s MAiD Death Review Committee revealed that a woman in her 80s identified as Mrs. B was killed by euthanasia even though the elderly woman changed her mind about the procedure. The woman had complications resulting from a coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Her condition worsened and she opted for palliative care. She was sent home with palliative [...]
Why do right-wing populist governments vote with the left at the EU? This is a question that has perplexed many. Why is it that conservative countries like Hungary, Italy, and Poland almost uniformly stand with the rest of the European Union countries in supporting far-left measures? Are they strong-armed, bullied, afraid of losing friends, afraid of losing trade opportunities, afraid of retaliation [...]
From the editor’s desk: In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords is debating whether to legalize euthanasia. We have a report on it in “And then there was this” on p. 17. I wanted to highlight one part of the on-going debate on that side of the lake, namely Lord Falconer’s comment during the third committee stage debate that the Terminally [...]
Josie Luetke: Officially, in Canada, there were 326,571 deaths in 2023. If you add the abortion volume for that year to that number, you’re looking at 428,124 recorded deaths. Tallying up abortion (101,553), “MAiD” or “medical assistance in dying” (15,427), (legally recognized) homicide (778), and suicide (approximately 4,447), 28.5 per cent of deaths were not tragic accidents or the sad succumbence to [...]
In their university philosophy classes, undergraduates are sometimes asked to grapple with thought experiments. The so-called “trolley problem,” for example, places an observer in view of an out-of-control locomotive. This on-looker is also, somehow, located at a switch which will divert the runaway train’s course and reduce the number of casualties—at the cost of the moral agent making a direct intervention. What [...]
Paul Tuns: On Jan. 6, Margaret Marsilla, shared a post on her Facebook account mourning the euthanasia death of her 26-year-old son Kinao Vafaiean on Dec. 30. Marsilla wrote on Facebook: “Four years ago, here in Ontario, we were able to stop his euthanasia and get him some help. He was alive because people stepped in when he was vulnerable and not [...]
Tamara Jansen, Special to The Interim: Unless this Parliament chooses a different path, Canada will allow MAiD for people whose only condition is mental illness. That means men and women struggling with depression, trauma or overwhelming psychological pain could be steered toward death by a system that too often cannot offer timely treatment, consistent follow-up or even basic support. This is why I [...]
Paul Tuns: Andrew Lawton stands up to speak in the Chambre during Question Period. © HOC-CDCCredit: Bernard Thibodeau, House of Commons Photo Services On Dec. 5, the House of Commons debated C-218, Tamara Jansen’s private member’s bill that would put an end to the planned March 2027 expansion of euthanasia to people suffering solely from mental illness. C-218, An Act [...]
Mary Zwicker: The citizens of a European country have halted the advancement of euthanasia legislation in a recent referendum. On Nov. 23, Slovenian citizens rejected a pro-euthanasia bill through a binding referendum that banned their government from revisiting the topic for another 12 months. Following the pro-life victory, conservative politician, activist, and primary leader of the referendum campaign, Aleš Primc, declared that [...]
Paul Tuns: Health Canada released its Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada on Nov. 28, providing data regarding Canada’s euthanasia and assisted-suicide regime in 2024, the most recent year for which there is completed data. According to the report, 16,499 Canadians were killed by euthanasia, an increase of seven per cent compared to 2023 when there were 15,427 [...]
Rory Leishman: The United States Declaration of Independence famously asserts: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” As originally understood in 1776, the phrase “all Men” in this context referred to all humans. In [...]
Paul Tuns: In October, Quebec Premier François Legault and Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette introduced Bill 1, a proposed constitution for the province which would constitutionally guarantee access to abortion and euthanasia. The bill, if passed, “enacts the Constitution of Québec, the Act respecting the constitutional autonomy of Québec and the Act respecting the Conseil constitutionnel,” and it would have “primacy over any [...]