Breaking: Supreme Court says doctors can kill their patients
Today the Supreme Court of Canada ignored it's own jurisprudence from 1993 and attempted to legislate from the bench by declaring Canada's criminal code prohibitions on euthanasia and assisted suicide to be "unconstitutional". The fact that the Court ignored its own legal precedent, abondoning the important legal principle of stare decisis (let the decision stand), is disturbing enough. It moves us into an era where case law may now be superceded by the personal opinions of nine judges.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the court justified its unanimous ruling with the ludicrous claim that prohibiting the killing of patients by doctors somehow violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That section states: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof". By what mental gymnastics can one interpret the right to not be deprived of life, as a positive right to be lethally injected by your doctor?
This shameful ruling essentially orders parliament to scrap the existing law, and craft a new one which grants doctors the right to kill their patients. The court even goes so far as to dictate to parliament what elements the law should contain, including granting euthanasia to people with "permanent and intolerable, physical or mental suffering".This can be interpreted to mean that people who are not even dying but just have chronic pain, must be helped to kill themselves. It is also frightening to realize that "mental suffering" can be interpreted to include those who are not even physically ill, but merely depressed.
This is not a baseless fear. In the Netherlands and Belgium where the courts years ago also imposed legalization with the soothing promise that euthanasia would allowed only in "narrow' circumstances, individuals with depression are now being euthanized. These jurisdictions also promised the public "strict safeguards" to prevent abuse. The fact is there is no safeguard which can prevent the expansionary effect of euthanasia. Allowing it for one category of persons will eventually lead to allowing it for others, lest there be claims of discrimination.
Making the delivery of death to patients into an integral part of our health care system would be disastrous to the most vulnerable of Canadians. It would put the elderly and disabled at risk by creating institutionalized pressure for many of them to consider ending their lives so as to avoid "being a burden" to family, or to our already cash-starved health care system. Doctors and healthcare administrators, like all people, are fallible, and this would poison the ethics of medicine. Some physicians and hospital bureaucrats eager to open up beds and reduce cost, will quickly see an opportunity to steer patients with a perceived "poor quality of life" to choose death. There are many ways to steer vulnerable and lonely persons towards euthanasia.
Campaign Life Coalition's National President, Jim Hughes responded with disappointment and a heavy heart:
"In striking down Rodriguez, our highest court told Canadians today that the lives of the weak, infirm, and vulnerable are not worth protecting. The court in essence decided that some people are better off dead than alive and gave power to those who are strong to end the lives of those who are weak. This is a terrible day of shame for Canada".
“We as a country have entered into utter moral blindness if we honestly believe that killing someone in the name of ‘compassion’ or ‘mercy’ is a solution to the problem of pain or debilitation. All life is a gift, and no one has the moral right to take that gift away from someone else. This law used to be called: ‘You shall not kill.’ It is always a false compassion to kill someone who is suffering. There is no dignity in killing the patient instead of the pain.”
Campaign Life Coalition urges Parliament to invoke the notwithstanding clause contained in Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and/or to enact a law that protects vulnerable Canadians from euthanasia and assisted suicide. Concerned citizens can quickly and easily email their MP using our automated Action Alert Email tool here. Ask your MP to resist this overreach by the Supreme Court by invoking the Charter's activist-judge override provision (i.e.. Section 33) if necessary.
To study the nightmare situation that has developed in other countries who legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia, watch our Slippery Slope video below: