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News regarding Bill C-7:
Last week marked the Third Reading and debate of Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Medical Assistance in Dying) in what sadly seems like a rapid increase in the momentum of our treacherous descent.
Bill C-7 proposes to repeal current stipulations of the Criminal Code, which requires natural death to be reasonably foreseeable in order to have access to assistance in dying.
On Tuesday, February 9th, the Senators voted to give the federal government 18 months to expand access to medical assistance in dying to people suffering solely from mental illnesses.
On Wednesday, February 10th, Senators voted to permit medical assistance in dying by advance request.
A final vote on Bill C7 is scheduled for today, February 17.
The Bill will then return to the House of Commons, which may or may not accept the amendments.
Despite the dismal proceedings, many Senators have been fighting hard on the political front lines to protect the rights of vulnerable Canadians.
Conservative Senate leader Don Plett proposed two amendments, which were both rejected. One was aimed at protecting the constitutional rights of freedom of religion and conscience by making it illegal to compel a health professional to participate in MAID, while the other aimed at protecting patient from coercion by requiring that the option of MAID be raised only by the patient, not by a health professional. Plett argued that the latter amendment would help alleviate the concern of people with disabilities who complained about feeling pressured to receive an assisted death.
Honorable Julie Miville-Dechêne’s speech in Senate echoes the concerns of many regarding MAID for mental illness. She cites the limited access to palliative care and other support services, inadequate safeguards, potential for abuse and the importance of studying the impact that expanding access to MAID will have on the most vulnerable members of society.
We encourage you to contact the Members of Parliament and ask them to reject the amendments expanding euthanasia even further than in the original Bill.
Numerous pro-MAiD sources have suggested that most Canadians are in favor of expanding assisted suicide. However as seen in the testimonies presented at the Senate hearings, there is no consensus in Canada on expanding assisted suicide and more and more groups are making themselves heard with regards to their opposition to Bill C-7:
First Nations leaders say Bill C7 goes against their beliefs and values
Indigenous leaders expressed their grave concerns regarding the impact of Bill C-7 in a letter to the Senate committee. Their letter urges Senators, Federal & Provincial Leaders and Regulators to uphold the right of the Indigenous peoples (and all Canadians) not to be compelled to collaborate in the provision of MAiD and the right to self-determination and to act on one’s conscience.
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) urges Senators to support conscience rights:
Last week, the Ontario Medical Association sent out a letter to both, Senator Mobina Jaffer, chair of the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, and Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot, asking for conscience rights for physicians in the context of “medical assistance in dying”.
A group of Rabbis wrote a letter urging Senators to amend Bill C-7 to protect people from coercion, to ensure adequate allocation of resources for meaningful care and to ensure that doctors are not required to participate if it violates their religious beliefs or moral conscience.
Dr. Joel Zivot, Anesthesiologist, expert on ethics regarding lethal injection and physician assisted death, has raised a little-discussed issue: the experience of MAiD. He cites research indicating that MAiD may not be as peaceful and painless as generally thought. Click here for Dr. Zivot’s cogent response (available only in French) to a brief submitted to Senate by Senators Kutcher, Mégie, Moodie and Ravalia on February 2nd refuting arguments presented by him.
- Op-Ed: Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying = Torturous Death: It may look peaceful, but closer examination may tell different story
Gasping For Air: Autopsies Reveal Troubling Effects Of Lethal Injection - ‘Medical Assistance in Dying is Not as Easy as it Looks’: This talk was given at a TEDx event.
Dissent among Quebec psychiatrists:
A group of Quebec psychiatrists have voiced their apprehension regarding the extension of MAiD to individuals with mental illness. They submitted a brief to the Canadian Senate on mental health as sole criterion for medical aid in dying (MAiD), as well as an op-ed published in Le Devoir, written because of serious concerns regarding a discussion paper presented by the Association of Quebec Psychiatrists (L’Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec, AMPQ)
Special rapporteurs Gerard Quinn, Olivier De Schutter and Claudia Mahler, who have been investigating Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council published a press release on January 25th, entitled: Disability is not a reason to sanction medically assisted dying. They expressed grave concern at a ‘growing trend of nations enacting legislation enabling access to medically assisted dying based largely on having a disability or disabling conditions, including old age’. Click here (at 14:41:15 ) to hear the testimony of Mr Gerard Quinn, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities at the Canadian Senate committee studying.
In his testimony to Senate earlier this month, Jonathan Marchand (Coopérative québécoise pour la vie autonome and Council of Canadians with Disabilities) cautioned against Bill C-7 increasing undue pressure on disabled individuals to avail of MAiD as a ‘solution’ before offering them help to live, which he experienced firsthand when he was ‘pressured to accept euthanasia’ because of his disabilities. He cited that the Bill is ‘incredibly discriminative’ towards individuals with disabilities.
Commentaries:
- Coelho, Gandhi and Herx: Lack of support vs. option to die
- Bouchard, Coelho and Herx: Physicians should not be forced to make assisted-death referrals
- A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night
- MAiD Muscles In: Staff layoffs and eviction of B.C.’s Delta Hospice Society from its facility outside Vancouver show MAiD advocates’ power to impose their will on those who don’t want it, Peter Stockland writes.
- Taking MAiD way too far Gabrielle Peters: The effort to widen eligibility for MAiD to include disabled people who are not actually dying is dangerous, unsettling and deeply flawed.
- How Bill C-7 will sacrifice the medical profession’s Standard of Care: Amendments to assisted dying laws are a stunning reversal of the central role of the medical and legal concept of the standard of care.
- MAID for Mental Illness: Myths & Facts : An excellent article by Psychiatrist, Dr. Maher outlining the facts, to dispel some common Myths around MAiD.
- McGuinty and Tang: Medically assisted death – Let’s offer humane and dignified living before offering a lethal injection. As noted in this opinion piece, poor mental health, coupled with inadequate support, often leads to suicidal wishes in people overwhelmed by their circumstances.
- Canada’s Newest And Deadliest Human Right: Assisted Suicide For All The article sheds light on the ‘legislation’s deadly implications, the political machinations that brought us here and how the entire concept of human rights has been stood on its head’.
- Opinion: Needed: more medical aid in living, not medical aid in dying
Dr. Sherif Emil, professor of Pediatric Surgery and Pediatrics at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and director of Pediatric Surgery at the Montreal Children’s Hospital urges us to reconsider the serious dangers of expanding euthanasia: “Many of us have long warned against the slippery slope of sanctioned euthanasia. We are now sliding down that slope at an alarming pace.”
- If medically assisted death becomes more accessible for Canadians, we have a moral obligation to make living well — through housing, mental health supports — accessible too
- Instead of Expanding MAiD, Expand Palliative Care The article echoes sentiments of numerous individuals and groups, advocating for the improved access to Palliative Care contrary to the push for expanding MAiD.
- Opinion: Assisted dying legislation must reconcile the rights of those who object to the practice Drs Brian Bird, assistant professor of Law at the University of British Columbia and Christina Lamb, bioethicist and assistant professor in the faculty of nursing at the University of Alberta make their appeal for conscience rights of health care professionals (regarding MAiD) in these final days before Bill C-7.
- McGill Daily: Bill C-7 Devalues the Lives of Disabled Canadians. “Disabled Canadians need accessible healthcare, not just MAiD”
Literature:
- Involvement of palliative care in patients requesting medical assistance in dying. Canadian Family Physician November 2020, 66 (11) 833-842; Camille Munro, Anna Romanova, Colleen Webber, Michael Kekewich, Rayelle Richard and Peter Tanuseputro
- High rates of psychiatric comorbidity among requesters of medical assistance in dying: Results of a Canadian prevalence study, General Hospital Psychiatry, Volume 69, 2021, Pages 7-11, Elie Isenberg-Grzeda, Amy Nolen, Debbie Selby, Sally Bean.
Events:
- MAiD: How far dare we go on medical assistance in dying? 22 February, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST (Free, Online Webinar)
- Emergency Lecture Series: Bill C-7 and Palliative Care, February 23 and 24, 2021. Click here to register