Once again the push is on to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The BC Civil Liberties Association is bringing forward, on behalf of two individuals, challenges to Section 241. Section 241 of the Criminal Code prohibits aiding and abetting, or to counsel someone to commit suicide. This section protects the young, the depressed, the mentally incompetent, or even old Aunt Sue from being coerced to commit suicide to get her inheritance sooner.
The courts are not the place where life and death should be decided. Only last year Bill C-384 was defeated in the House of Commons by 228 to 59.
Death once invited leaves it’s muddy footprints. We only have to look to Holland and Belgium where people are euthanized without their consent. There is talk in Holland that people over 70, if they are tired of living, should qualify for euthanasia.
Or in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal, the government health plan offered patients who wanted treatment, state sanctioned suicide.
The laws that guarantee the right to life must remain in place.
Or would we want our aging parents to feel that they have become a burden on the family, or the health- care system?
Or physicians be mandated to provide death on demand?
No doubt the Human Rights Commission would deny those refusing their freedom of conscience and moral convictions.
Clearly, more needs to be invested in palliative and hospice care. As for managing pain, the World Heath Association has stated that most pain can be made bearable by up to 95 per cent.
Canadians must continue to build a nation that upholds the dignity of all it’s citizens, and reject killing as the answer, but rather provide proper care for the terminally ill, the handicapped and the vulnerable.
Hildegard Krieg
