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Recently , a Quebec MP introduced a Private Members Bill in May of this year (2009) with the intent of legalizing euthanasia and physician assisted suicide in Canada. Here is an article that provides the facts: KILL THE PAIN, NOT THE PATIENT By the time this article is published, we can hope that Bloc MP Francine Lalonde’s third effort to legalize euthanasia and physician assisted suicide in Canada, through private member’s Bill C-384, will have been defeated after its second reading in the House. Whatever the outcome, we will have to inform ourselves about the end-of-life issues of active euthanasia (death caused by a physician) and assisted suicide (death with the help of a physician). The public debate continues in Canada and in the world as death by choice is being legalized in various jurisdictions such as the States of Oregon and Washington in the U.S. and countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland. Bill C-384 would, if passed, make medical practitioners legal killers or agents of death if someone “appearing to be lucid” asks for death whether or not he/she is terminally ill. Ms. Lalonde’s Bill demands that society condone our right to choose death as the treatment of choice, and further obligates medical practitioners to carry out the killing. In its 2004 statement on these issues, the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) “does not support assisted suicide and active euthanasia.” It further states that “the goals of medicine are not only to cure disease and minimize suffering but also to provide the best possible end-of-life care, when cure is no longer possible.” In a National Post article (August 29, 2009) Dr. Jeff Blackmer, an Ottawa physician and Director of the CMA’s Office of Ethics, says, “It’s a central tenet of medical ethics that thou shall not kill, that you first do no harm. This debate is a clash of moralities, but against the most deeply held morality that physicians have.” In his practice, he will prescribe drugs that relieve pain to dying patients to alleviate suffering so that it “is the underlying disease that is causing death – while letting nature run its course.” A group of concerned Quebec physicians presented a Brief to the Collège des Médecins du Québec on August 30, 2009: Say “No” to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: No Special Circumstances Can Justify Them. They argue that euthanasia and assisted suicide should never be decriminalized in Canada saying “that neither disease, nor physical or mental decline, nor pain, nor suffering, nor loss of autonomy can undermine the fundamental value of the human being.” One of the possible effects of legalizing euthanasia would be to distort social attitudes towards the seriously ill, the disabled and the old. The Quebec physicians’ Brief argues that “the solution to ensure ‘dying with dignity’ remains first and foremost a competent palliative approach, respect, support and tenderness.” Of ultimate concern to these physicians is the participation of the medical profession in becoming arbiters of when “to preserve a life or to end it.” The person that cures becomes as well the person who gives death. They remind us, “Giving patients the right to die means giving doctors the right to kill.” We might take into account in our reflection on this life and death issue that the medical profession was called on to be abortion providers and arbiters of hard cases by the Omnibus Bill forty years ago. That slippery slope resulted eventually in doctors presiding over 100,000 abortions a year in Canada. Sources for more information and discussion:
THE DANGERS OF LEGALIZED EUTHANASIA Early in the new year, on February 3, Canadian MPs are scheduled to vote on Bill C-384, a private member’s bill that seeks to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. The bill appears to be headed for defeat with the majority of MPs indicating they will be voting against it. As the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide are being debated in this country, it would be wise to consider the impact that legalised “mercy killing” has had in Holland. Holland was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia in 2002. Since that time, reports indicate that the quality of care for the dying has deteriorated. According to a report in Britain’s Daily Mail, the woman behind Holland’s controversial law, Els Borst, has admitted she may have made a mistake. Borst is the former Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The report says she has admitted that medical care for terminally ill patients has declined since euthanasia became legal. Researcher Dr. Anne-Marie The, who is writing a book about the history of euthanasia, and has studied the topic for the past 15 years, says that palliative care in Holland has been so inadequate that patients “often ask for euthanasia out of fear” of dying in pain because care and pain relief is so poor. As health care for dying patients has declined, cases of euthanasia in the Netherlands have increased. There were 1,626 reported cases of euthanasia in 2003. The numbers increased 43% to 2,331 in 2008. That figure does not include cases of involuntary euthanasia where people are put to death without requesting it. (The last major study done showed that 550 people died by involuntary euthanasia in Holland in 2005) Nor does it include cases of infant euthanasia as permitted by the Groningen Protocol. A 2009 Environics poll conducted in Canada revealed that 70% of Canadians worried if legalization of euthanasia were to occur here, sick, disabled or elderly people would be euthanized without their consent. 69% said improved palliative care should be the government’s priority in this area, while only 18% said legalizing euthanasia should be the priority. According to Dr. Delores Doherty, President of LifeCanada, euthanasia undermines the principle of “first do no harm” that is essential to the doctor-patient relationship. “If euthanasia is made legal, we’ll see an erosion of patient trust as doctors move from healing to taking lives. People are worried that elderly and disabled folks would be at risk.” She adds, “The Dutch experience with euthanasia sadly bears that out. Safeguards tend not to work.” Journalist and former Calgary lawyer, Jim Mahony agrees. In his December 12th column in the Calgary Herald, he states, “Euthanasia advocates say unspecified ‘safeguards’ will ensure that only the willing will be killed. Yet, safeguards had no such effect in the Netherlands, where cases of involuntary euthanasia are well documented.” Mahony quotes Dr. Andre Bourque, head of family medicine at the University of Montreal, “To give the right to die to the patient, you must give a right to kill to the physician. A physician is there to support, comfort and heal. The minute you give him the right to kill, you have changed something in the relationship.” Marlene Tersigni Sources: |
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