C-562: Canadian Bill to Legalize Active Euthanasia
A private member's bill (C-562) has been introduced in the Canadian Parliament. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but our good friend Alex Schadenberg, head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is on the case. From his blog:• The bill legalizes euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.
They are getting increasingly bold, aren't they? More later if the bill begins to move.
• The bill does not restrict euthanasia and assisted suicide to citizens of Canada. Canada could become a haven for American Suicide Tourists.
• The person must be at least 18 years old.
• A person may refuse appropriate treatments and still obtain euthanasia or assisted suicide. How can a physician determine that there is no prospect of relief if the person refuses appropriate treatments?
• The person may be experiencing either physical or mental pain. The bill will allows death as a treatment for depression or other chronic mental conditions.
• The bill does not define terminal illness and it is not limited to people who are terminally ill.
• The bill measures competency based on appearing to be lucid. What does that mean?
• The bill requires the person to submit two written requests at least 10 days apart.
• The bill allows incompetent people to die by euthanasia if they have made the request within a valid advanced directive. It is not clear whether medical practitioners are the only ones who can carry out euthanasia on incompetent people...
• The definition of medical practitioner is not limited to a physician.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 4:47 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Sounds just like Holland. In one big jump.
Wes,
I have cerebral palsy, chronic pain, depression and other fun health problems. I am now permanently estranged from my pain. (They tried to railroad me into a long-term care institution. I gave them power of attorney. Then I found out from my case manager that my parents had told her: "It's a lot easier to get our daughter to do things when she is in severe pain" I promptly stripped them of power of attorney and when I refused to restore it, my father removed the finance support he had been providing me with, told me I had to pay him back (he made no mention of this until I pulled the power of attorney agreement. Telling a disabled, depressed and pain-racked woman on a pension that she owes several hundred dollars, when he and my mom make more money than I will ever see in this life. Then my mom e-mailed me and told me that she guessed I didn't need a family and put money aside for emergencies because she and dad wanted nothing more to do with me, ever.
All because I wouldn't move back close to where my family lived and into a lobg term care facility and in the process give up my cat, everything I owned, all my friends and anything that might serve to distract me from the considerable physical and mental pain I endure.
My parents were very emotionally abusive to me growing up. I had the surgery that Robert Latimer killed his daughter over, having my right hip removed. The transcript of Latimer's trial states she would have suffered greatly in the year after the surgery. I was yelled at by my father for not being free of pain and for being in worse pain four months after the surgery. I told a nurse visiting me to provide care about this and asked her to talk to my dad. (She said I was doing well.) She talked to my dad and after she left, Dad lambasted me about talking about a private family matter. After one pain-filled appointment with my surgeon, my mom called me a _____, for being snappish with the surgeon. I was expected to continue with my studies at university thru that pain as if nothing had ever happened, and I was in such intense pain that I took up swearing for the first time in my life. I moved out behind my parents' backs and they came down to stop me the day after my 22nd birthday. There is muxh more to my past, including a year and a half in a psych hospital starting at age 5, something which I have carried with me ever since, especially since my parents brought it up regularly when yelling at me. The past 48 hours since my mom's vicious e-mail have been the worst in my life. The emotional abuse has made me a hermit. (If my own parents are angry at me, I fear the same treatment from others.) It has taken time, kindness and to bring me out of that isolation but it is still strong.
I feel horrible and have considered going back into isolation again at the very least. I have thought of writing to my brother and sister but I can't take any more trash in my life. I am also in danger of losing a friend. (The pain has monopolized my thoughts.) I have spent four years waiting for a pain clinic and have just found out that I may never have been put on a waiting list for an apartment with more care.
I mention this because the danger with euthanasia is that it is all too easy to make someone WANT to die, either unwittingly or ever deliberately. And disabled people have been betrayed, insulted, abused, segregated and neglected, even raped and murdered. This happens so often that every disabled person I have known is on some form of antidepressant, simply to deal with the pain and stress of all this. And your own relatives can be among your betrayers. Our mistreatment is so great that the strain of just trying to live one's life can be mentally unhealthy, and drive some to drink and drugs. People use this suffering as an excuse to abort or euthanize disabled babies, but what is conveiniently forgotten is that much of that suffering is at the hands of the able-bodied population. Blacks have revolted over far less than what I and others are forced to live with. There was an uprising in Warsaw during WWII when some Jews resolved to die fighting Nazis rather than gas. And I see people trying to legalize euthanasia and I know that my fellow disabled comrades in arms cannot fight back, nor can we even flee the area should euthanasia become legal. I cannot even get the care I need, and many expect me to institutionalize myself when there are better options out there. And they expect that my parents SHOULD be there to take care of this 37 year old Canadian. They have this preconcieved idea of what I should be and they would freak if I ever dared to bring a child into this world and defile my race by "spreading my disability". My own doctor, family and friends would be pressuring me for an abortion. I have had so many of my dreams crushed. Too often my disability has dictated where I can go, what I studied in school, where I live that I don't often get a chance to talk about my interests. It has affected how others,even my family deal with me. I can live with not walking, but prejudice can cause more pain that a dislocated hip. How very touching that many are fighting to win people like me the right to die. All of our other rights are violated on a regular basis and we are insulted and abused at will.
And no offense. It's hard enough to stop me from killing myself without passing a law allowing any Tom, Dick and Harry to "assist me"
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