Hugh Scher said Taquisha McKitty's Charter rights were violated in order to declare her dead. The case concerning a woman who has been declared brain dead by a Brampton hospital is heading to the Ontario court of appeal. The issue at hand is the definition of brain death. Taquisha McKitty, 27, of Brampton, was declared brain dead on Sept. 20, [...]
Often in our culture, assisted-death is considered a caring act that affirms the choice of one who is ill, and that no harm can arise from its legalization. The new documentary Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death, by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and DunnMedia, shows that this is not the case as it examines the harms that have arisen through euthanasia and assisted-suicide [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman Less than a year after the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously legalized euthanasia for mentally competent patients in the 2015 Carter ruling, Liberals and New Democrats on the Special Joint Committee of Parliament on Physician-Assisted Dying unanimously recommended that the law on euthanasia should extend to mentally incompetent patients as well. Everyone who supports this so-called progressive reform, should contemplate the [...]
The recent edict by the Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia ordering non-religious healthcare facilities, including hospices, to participate in euthanasia, is an infringement on the conscience rights of the medical staff. I believe that institutional conscience rights are about the rights of the workers within an institution to not participate in acts that they consider wrong. The edict by Fraser Health [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman Following a much-publicized campaign to obtain medical assistance in dying, Aurelia Brouwers, a 29-year-old, Dutch psychiatric patient, killed herself on Jan. 26, by drinking a lethal potion served up by a physician affiliated with a roving Dutch death squad, the Levenseindekliniek (an end-of-life clinic) in The Hague, the Netherlands. Brouwers was not terminally ill. Neither was [...]
A survey of 1,050 pediatricians found that about 11 per cent of them (118) report being approached by children, teens, or their parents about euthanasia or assisted-suicide a total of 409 times. The survey, conducted by the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program, a joint project of the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Public Health Agency of Canada, found that most conversations were exploratory [...]
The Canadian Medical Health Association released its position paper on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and it endorsed euthanasia and assisted-suicide as a legitimate medical service while coming out against expanding criteria for the procedure to include those suffering from mental illness. Noting that it released its paper days before World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10, the CMHA said that “people [...]
Lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos says doctors should not have to choose between their conscience and their practice. Five doctors and three doctors’ groups were in an Ontario court June 13-15 arguing a policy from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) violates their Charter rights to freedom of conscience and religion. The CPSO forces doctors to refer patients for [...]
One year after Canada passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act on June 17, 2016, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says “Canada has become the prime example of how legalizing assisted dying cannot be controlled and why these laws are naturally expansive.” According to Health Canada’s “Interim update on medical assistance in dying in Canada, June 17 to December 31, 2016, there were [...]
Rory Leishman National Affairs How could the Netherlands, a country which heroically resisted the Nazi euthanasia program during the Second World War, now embrace one of the most extensive regimes of legalized euthanasia in the Western world? Most people in the Netherlands would resent such a question: They insist that there is no moral equivalence between the current Dutch model [...]
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition shunned by committee Alex Schadenberg The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the largest international anti-euthanasia group, was refused a request to provide an oral presentation to the Liberal-dominated Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs at Queen’s Park. The committee is studying Bill 84, which will govern the implementation of doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia in Ontario after the federal [...]
Ontario’s Liberal government is backing the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in its attack on doctors’ religious and conscience rights. The Liberal government has intervened on behalf of the CPSO in a lawsuit launched by five Christian doctors, who argue that the College’s Professional Obligation and Human Rights Policy violates their Charter rights of religious freedom and conscience. The CPSO [...]
Terminally ill patients seek access to unapproved drugs A group of Canadians with terminal illness is asking for the right to try unapproved drugs or treatments for their conditions. “We have the law that allows us to kill ourselves. We just don’t have the law to do something else,” said Jeff Pereault, one of the founders of the Right to Try campaign, [...]
MPP Sam Oosterhoff 10. Renewed pro-life political activism in Canada Social conservatives were making news in Canada for grassroots involvement. The October victory of 19-year-old socially conservative Sam Oosterhoff over Ontario Progressive Conservative president Rick Dykstra for the party’s nomination in a by-election was heralded as a victory for the movement over the party establishment. But it began when grassroots [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell "Well, they’ve done it,” Dingwall said. “Done what?” I asked. “Removed the stigma from suicide,” he replied. “By letting doctors help patients kill themselves, the Supreme Court transformed a calamity into a cure.” “Some think the ruling is very restrictive,” I said, “requiring intolerable suffering, among other conditions.” “Maybe for now,” he said. “However, the [...]