News

Carstairs one of Canada’s “leaders to liberalize euthanasia laws.”

OTTAWA, April 10, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Health Minister Anne McLellan has announced that the Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister with Special Responsibility for Palliative Care, Sharon Carstairs, is leading Canada’s delegation to the United Nations’ Second World Assembly on Ageing. The Assembly is being held in Madrid, Spain, from 8 to 12 April.

Last year Liberal Sharon Carstairs, one of the foremost euthanasia activists in the Canadian Senate, was given special responsibility for overseeing palliative care by Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The appointment is of concern to some pro-life leaders.

Karen Murawsky, director of public affairs at the National Affairs office of Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSite that Carstairs’ political record and her professed admiration for the euthanasia practice in the Netherlands shows her to be a euthanasia activist. Murawsky referred to Carstairs’ often reintroduced bills on withdrawal of treatment for seriously ill patients. They included “nutrition and hydration” in the definition of “treatments”, enabling health care workers to effectively starve patients to death. The media has touted Carstairs as a euthanasia activist. In July 1997 the Ottawa Citizen said Carstairs and NDP MP Svend Robinson “have emerged as leaders to liberalize euthanasia laws.” Moreover, Carstairs has herself admitted publicly that she is in favour of doctor-assisted suicide. The Vancouver Sun Oct. 2, 1996 quotes Carstairs as saying, “If we are ever going to have doctor assisted suicide in Canada – and I support it – then it has to be with very tight controls.”

See related LifeSite coverage and the gov’t announcement on Carstairs:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/apr/010411.html#3 https://canada.gc.ca/wire/2002/04/090402_e.html