CANADA

April 12, 2006
Euthanasia Bill to be Brought to House “Sooner Rather than Later” says Quebec MP

LifeSiteNews.com reports:

A debate at Université du Québec (UqàM) in Montreal on Friday, April 7, featured Canada’s foremost Parliamentary proponent of assisted suicide and euthanasia, Bloc MP, Francine Lalonde. Lalonde said that she fully intends to bring forward another bill proposing to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia to replace the previous bill that died on the order paper in December.

Had Lalonde’s bill C-407 been passed, the law in Canada would have allowed any individual to “assist” someone to commit suicide with or without a doctor present. In June 2005, when the bill was pending, Ontario’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition warned that it would create a situation in Canada where people who do not want to be euthanized are killed by doctors.

Guido De Volder, a Montreal writer, attended the debate and told the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition that Lalonde vowed on Friday to reintroduce her bill “sooner rather than later,” in the current session of Parliament. Her opinion, De Volder said, remains unchanged, that since active euthanasia is already being practiced, it must be legalized so that it may be regulated to be made “safe.”

This news alarms pro-life opponents to euthanasia who have noted that the same argument created the situation in the Netherlands where elderly patients reportedly fear to go to hospital in case their case is judged by a doctor to warrant euthanasia.

De Volder said it was Lalonde’s opinion that palliative care can only be a complementary solution, at best. People, she said, should have the right to “die with dignity” when certain conditions are met.

Jean Echlin, EPC vice-president and palliative care nurse said last June, “The bill introduces the slippery slope we’ve seen in the Netherlands where people who don’t want to be euthanized are. Canadians have to wake up because it’s coming.”

Echlin pointed out a clause in C-407 that would have allowed euthanasia for those who “appear to be lucid,” saying such vague language was a positive threat to vulnerable disabled, ill and elderly people.

Only one voice at the panel at the University of Quebec opposed the legalization of euthanasia. Prof. Brian Mishara, PhD., Professor at the Department of Psychology at UQàM and Director of the Suicide and Euthanasia Research and Intervention Center (CRISE), objected to the “apparently lucid” clause in Lalonde’s legislation.
by Hilary White

September 20, 2005
Suicide Bill Gets Fall Vote

The Edmonton Sun reports:

OTTAWA -- MPs will be forced to take a public stand on the controversial issue of assisted suicide this fall. MPs will cast a vote on Bloc MP Francine Lalonde's bill Oct. 31, which amends the Criminal Code to give sick Canadians the "right to die with dignity."

The bill will first be debated during second reading in the Commons at the end of next month for one hour before MPs vote on whether to send it to a parliamentary committee for review or trash it.

If the bill finds support from the majority of MPs after being hashed over by a committee, Bill C-407 will allow a lucid adult in extreme pain whose treatment has failed, or who has a terminal illness, to be assisted in committing suicide.

According to the proposed legislation, this person must first have made "two lucid requests more than 10 days apart, expressly stating the person's free and informed wish to end their life." Anyone assisting must have confirmation of the diagnosis from two medical practitioners and be aided by someone authorized to practise medicine.

The amendment, which Lalonde first tabled June 15 in the Commons, would rewrite two sections of the Criminal Code in which assisted suicide is categorized as homicide.

The Liberal government is not expected to back Lalonde's bill, since private member's bills traditionally do not find support from governing MPs.