Debate over euthanasia reopened in Canada

The legal status of euthanasia is once again under debate in Canada, as Gloria Taylor and a number of other plaintiffs (including the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association) take the government to court over the issue. Gaynor, a sufferer of Lou Gehrig’s disease, is challenging Canadian laws which make physician-assisted suicide illegal. The case, Carter vs. the Attorney General of Canada, is now before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The court case follows on the heels of the publication of a Royal Society of Canada report which calls for the legalization of euthanasia. “Both assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia should be available,” the authors write. “The federal government should modify prohibitions on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia in the Criminal Code, so that… they are legally permissible.”

That conclusion has many decrying the objectivity of the government-initiated report. “It is not ‘a careful, balanced review of various pros and cons of decriminalization of physician-assisted death from well-reasoned ethical and legal standpoints’,” writes Margaret Somerville in a recent Montreal Gazette commentary. “It is an unabashed pro-euthanasia manifesto.”

Somerville, a prominent bio-ethicist and founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, goes on to argue that the legalization of euthanasia invariably leads to a diminished societal value of human life. She further notes the potential for abuse of euthanasia to target vulnerable segments of the population, including the elderly and the disabled.

The lawyer representing the government in Carter vs. the Attorney General of Canada argued much the same thing last week in an appearance last week before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. “We do not condone the taking of life,” she said, suggesting the legalization of euthanasia would create “a fundamental shift in societal values.”

President Clifford Pyle of Lutherans for Life Canada expressed the following ways in which Canadians might make a difference. “We are asking Canadians to do two things,” he said. “First, and most importantly, take this in prayer to God – that He would be watching over the situation, guiding it for good. Secondly, express your concern publicly. Write letters to the editor. Sign the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition’s petition. Ask your elected officials to express their disapproval. Let the courts know that euthanasia is not an option in Canadian society.”

Parliament has repeatedly rejected calls for the legalization of euthanasia, most recently voting down a private member’s bill in 2010. The current situation differs in that this time the legal status of euthanasia will be decided by the courts rather than by elected officials.

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