Wednesday April 21, 2010
Canadian Parliament Debates Euthanasia – Vote Today
By Patrick B. Craine
OTTAWA, Ontario, April 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The private members bill seeking to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada received its second hour of debate in the House of Commons Tuesday, with a vote to follow on Wednesday.
Bill C-384, brought by Member of Parliament Francine Lalonde (La Pointe-de-l’Île, BQ), received its first hour of debate on March 16. The bill was originally scheduled for a vote in November after being debated in October; but Lalonde has traded the vote back three times and it required first reading again after Parliament was prorogued at the end of last year.
Eight MPs spoke to the bill Tuesday, with four in favour and four opposed. In addition to Lalonde, those backing the bill were: Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa—Vanier, Lib.), Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP), and Nicole Demers (Laval, BQ). Speaking in opposition were: Tim Uppal (Edmonton—Sherwood Park, CPC), Michael Savage (Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.), Jim Maloway (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP), Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP).
Tim Uppal (Edmonton—Sherwood Park, CPC), told the House that Lalonde’s bill “offers death as a solution to pain and suffering.” Uppal noted that the bill’s scope is “extremely broad,” pointing out that it would allow even those “who are not in the process of dying to ask a doctor to end their life.”
Michael Savage (Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.) argued that instead of offering death, Canada needs to focus on offering better palliative care to those at the end of life. Canada’s “palliative care system is not strong enough,” he said. “That is where I believe our efforts should be.”
Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP) said that he thinks it’s possible to have a euthanasia law with “appropriate safeguards,” and claimed that this has been done in the other jurisdictions where it’s been legalized, such as the Netherlands.
But Jim Maloway (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP) pointed out that the architect of Holland’s euthanasia laws, Dr. Els Borst, has since changed her mind on euthanasia and admitted that her country should have pursued advances in palliative care first. He argued that with assisted suicide remaining illegal, the government faces pressure to improve palliative care quickly, but “if we passed legislation like this bill, then the pressure would be off.”
This time around Lalonde focused on claiming that her bill is fundamentally about respecting individual “choice.” “The individual must have the freedom to choose at the end of their life,” she insisted.
But Alison Davis, writing in the National Post Wednesday, explained that she is now grateful doctors did not respect her choice to die – a desire that lasted 10 years. “Had Ms. Lalonde’s bill been in place then, I would have requested physician assisted suicide, and under the supposed ‘safeguards,’ my request would have been granted,” wrote Davis, who suffers from several disabilities that keep her in a wheelchair.
Drs. Jose Pereira, Pamela Eisener-Parsche, and Rene Leiva of Bruyere Continuing Care in Ottawa insist that under the “overwhelming fears” faced by the vulnerable in society, “a free autonomous decision for euthanasia is an illusion.” Writing one of four letters to the editor in the National Post Wednesday by medical doctors opposing the euthanasia bill, they called instead for “life-affirming options.”
Dr. Philip Ney from Victoria, in his letter, noted that the bill would be dangerous for vulnerable patients because medical professionals are “not above being corrupted,” as evidenced in Nazi Germany. “Not uncommonly,” he wrote, he has had patients like Davis who “earnestly wanted to die,” but later were “glad to be alive.”
According to Dr. Tim Lau of Ottawa, “the only way, it seems that Francine Lalonde can pass her bill is by confusing everyone.” He criticizes in particular Lalonde’s use of the phrase “death with dignity,” noting that this “implies that we can make death dignified by treating patients like pets or objects.”
“’Death with dignity’ is not the same thing as death with efficiency,” he writes. “Until we recognize that our dignity lies not in what we can do or what circumstances we find ourselves, but in who were are, we will never realize our true dignity.”
Voting on private members legislation in the House of Commons begins at 5:30 pm on Wednesday.
The full transcript of the debate on Bill C-384 can be found in Hansard here.