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Friday June 24, 2005
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Assisted Suicide Bill Introduced in Canadian Parliament
OTTAWA, June 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) -Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde has introduced a private members bill to legalize assisted suicide in Canada. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has condemned the measure saying, "This bill is so wide open it provides no effective restrictions whatsoever and if passed it will be assisted suicide on demand."
The bill, introduced June 15 and tentatively set for debate next Wednesday, does not necessitate someone to be terminally ill to request assisted suicide. Should the bill pass, anyone in Canada at least 18 years of age can request assisted suicide if they are experiencing "severe physical or mental pain without any prospect of relief." That relief, need not come from medications since the bill permits assisted suicide even though the person has been "refusing the treatments that have not been tried."
EPC Executive Director Alex Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews.com that the person who aids the death does not have to be a physician. The bill states that "the person who aids the other person to die" must be "a medical practitioner or is assisted by a medical practitioner."
Schadenberg warns that the measure is a prescription for abuse. "You don't have to be competent to make the decision. The legislation states only that you have to 'appear to be lucid'", he said. The legislation states that those asking to have themselves killed must have, "while appearing to be lucid, made to a medical practitioner, or to the person who aids the person to die, two requests more than ten days apart expressly stating the person's free and informed wish to die."
See the bill online here:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/priva...
jhw
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