BREAKING: Assisted dying bill leaves suffering Canadians behind
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- Published on Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:30
- Written by editor
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BREAKING: Assisted dying bill leaves suffering Canadians behind
Dear PAOV,
This morning the federal government released its long awaited bill on medically assisted dying.
It is deeply disappointing that the federal government has decided to exclude people from this medical treatment in an arbitrary and discriminatory way, despite the recommendation of the all-party committee of MPs and Senators.
This bill wants to restrict access to assisted dying to those people for whom death is “reasonably foreseeable”. The Supreme Court did not require that a patient have a terminal illness. The requirement means that even individuals considered by the court in the Carter case would be excluded.
Kay Carter, who was central to our case, suffered from spinal stenosis and was not going to die from that illness. What was guaranteed was intolerable and perhaps indefinite suffering. This bill must not prevent people like Kay Carter from accessing a medically assisted death. To do so would be an outrage that flies in the face of the Carter decision.
The Prime Minister himself has said repeatedly that the Charter of Rights is central to their vision of governing this country. In our opinion, this legislation plainly violates the Charter rights of suffering Canadians. The result will be profound and unimaginable suffering for patients who are left out.
It is only because of the support of people like you that we have come this far, but now this bill gives us more to do. We must continue to fight for the rights of those Canadians that this bill leaves behind.
For many years now, your financial support has made it possible to fight for the rights of incurably ill Canadians suffering intolerably against their will.
Today I will ask one more time.
If you can, please donate today to support our work on the right to death with dignity.
We will use these funds to seek amendments from the House of Commons and the Senate on the most troubling aspects of this bill. Together, we have been successful before the highest court in this country. The Supreme Court has already ruled in our favour. We must not allow Parliament to now claw back those rights for entire categories of Canadians.
Sincerely,
Grace Pastine, BCCLA Litigation Director,
and the BCCLA team
