Dr. Atul Gawande is a renowned surgeon, public-health researcher and medical professor at Harvard. His latest book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, contains many valuable suggestions for improving the care and treatment of terminally ill patients nearing the end of life. To begin with, Gawande notes that as recently as 1945, most deaths in the United States, Canada, and [...]
A Conservative and Liberal senator have teamed up to jump-start the stalled debate on MP Steven Fletcher’s euthanasia and assisted-suicide bill. Senators Larry Campbell (Liberal) and Nancy Ruth (Conservative introduced a private member's bill in the Senate that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth and Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, both Paul Martin appointees, introduced Bill S-225, [...]
Lawyer Hugh Scher of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition argued that no safeguards will protect vulnerable people from being killed. In 1993 the Supreme Court upheld the Criminal Code provision against assisted suicide in a 5-4 vote as it refused Sue Rodriguez’s request to have medical assistance to be killed. Now, 21 years later, the Supreme Court of Canada is revisiting [...]
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops have launched a national campaign against euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide as the country’s Supreme Court is expected to reconsider the issue in the near future. At the bishops’ plenary assembly in Beaupré, Quebec, this week, Bishop Noël Simard, chairman of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, announced the initiative, titled “National Campaign for Palliative Care [...]
Robert Latimer Convicted child murderer Robert Latimer has won a federal court appeal of restrictions on travel outside of Canada placed on him by the National Parole Board. Federal Court Judge Michael Manson said in a ruling released Sept. 16 that the appeal board of the National Parole Board acted “unreasonably” when it denied Latimer’s request to travel outside Canada [...]
In a rare display of disagreement, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board rejected a decision by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and provided some Justice for the family of Douglas DeGuerre, who died on September 22, 2008, after doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto unilaterally imposed a do not resuscitate order against the wishes of DeGuerre and his family. [...]
Sue Rodriguez (left) and Lee Carter (right) In the 1993 Rodriguez case, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the constitutional validity of the ban on assisted suicide in section 241(b) of the Criminal Code. Since then, advocates of so-called death with dignity have made several failed attempts to legalize assisted suicide by means of a private-member’s bill; most recently in 2010, when [...]
The Canadian Medical Association held its annual conference in August, where members of the organization debated whether changes to its policy on euthanasia were necessary. According to the Globe and Mail’s health reporter, Andre Picard, the group’s position has not yet changed. However, the CMA now, “supports the right of all physicians, within the bounds of existing legislation, to follow their conscience [...]
On July 17, two groups, Living with Dignity and the Physicians’ Alliance Against Euthanasia, filed a lawsuit before the Superior Court of Quebec in Montreal challenging the validity of Bill 52, An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care. The Act, proposed by the Parti Quebecois government of Pauline Marois in 2013 and passed by the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard in June, provides for [...]
Terri (Schindler) Schiavo Nine years ago, most of North America was captivated by the legal drama surrounding Terri (Schindler) Schiavo. The Florida woman sustained severe brain injuries in 1990 after her brain was deprived of oxygen. As a result, Schiavo relied on a feeding tube for nutrition and hydration. Schiavo did not have a living will. Her estranged husband Michael, [...]
The Quebec National Assembly passed a bill that effectively legalizes euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, a law pro-life groups say is dangerous and unconstitutional. With the March election call killing Quebec’s Bill 52, which would have effectively legalized euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, pro-lifers, disabilities groups, and other opponents of the proposed law thought they had more time to work to defeat the bill. [...]
On March 27 MP Steven Fletcher (CPC, Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia), who is a quadriplegic, tabled a pair of private members bills, C-581 and C-582, that would allow euthanasia and assisted-suicide in Canada. Considering that Fletcher is far down the order of precedence, at #240, it is unlikely his bill will be considered in the House of Commons before the October 2015 federal election, [...]
On the question of euthanasia, the people have spoken. In 2010, the late Bloc MP, Francine Lalonde, made her third attempt to weaken Canada’s laws protecting the elderly and the infirm, and her bill was comfortably defeated by a vote in the House of 228 to 59. The will of the people could not be clearer. And yet, just four years after this firm rejection, the previous [...]
A vote on the Parti Quebecois government’s Bill 52, the Quebec euthanasia bill, died when the Quebec National Assembly recessed on February 20 without voting and the provincial assembly was dissolved on March 5 with an election was called for April 7. Just days prior to the recess, Philippe Couillard, leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, secured extra time for debate [...]
Years ago, while covering the case of Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who killed his disabled daughter in cold blood, a columnist observed: “A society that believes in nothing can offer no argument even against death. A culture that has lost its faith in life cannot comprehend why it should be endured.” This incisive observation cuts to the heart of the contradiction [...]