End-of-Life Care

Conscience Rights and Ethical Wrongs

Peter Stockland

May 28, 2019

More than 1,500 Ontario doctors object to a College edict privileging abortion and MAiD over conscience rights, arguing the order is the moral equivalent of requiring doctors to perform the acts, writes Peter Stockland. The ruling threatens Charter guarantees that every Canadian has the fundamental right think and believe freely.

Imagine being a feminist physician unshakeable in your conviction that girls and women must be protected from patriarchal oppression.

Now picture being asked to assist with a sex-selection abortion because daddy doesn’t want a female child and mothe...

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The Barbarian Invasion of Euthanasia

Tim McCauley

May 24, 2019

Looking at the issue of Medical Aid in Dying, Father Tim McCauley sees old barbarism and ancient heresy coming down the hall wearing modern white medical coats.

In Denys Arcand's 2003 film, Les Invasions Barbares, one of the main characters, Remy, decides to be euthanized with a lethal dose of heroin. In the film, "barbarian invasions" refers not to euthanasia but to political movements like nationalism an...

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MAiD and Modern Medicine

Peter Stockland

June 18, 2018

Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class and the full power to transform Canadian society forever.

Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class a...

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Renewing End-of-Life Care

Doug Sikkema

April 24, 2018

There’s a growing need for more and better end-of-life care in Canada – especially as our population ages. But how does the national picture affect our local communities? Cardus Senior Researcher Doug Sikkema and Ottawa policy analyst Marisa Casagrande have analyzed two of Ontario’s larger communities to get a better idea of what challenges the health system will face, and what all parts of society need to bring to the table to meet them..

In the 2015 report Death Is Natural: Reframing the End-of-Life Conservation in Canada, Cardus noted that Canada’s “current healthcare system is under increasing stress as one of the most populous generations on record—the baby-boomers—ages and dies...

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Meaning and MAID

Christopher De Bono

December 7, 2017

Today, we release the fourth piece in our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial.

(Pictured: Dr. Christopher De Bono, Vice President of Mission, Ethics, and Spirituality for Providence Health Care in Vancouver, Britis...

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Protecting Patients in the Shadows of Euthanasia: 3 Recommendations

Faye Sonier

October 12, 2016

We will all be vulnerable at some time in our lives and this legislation does not and cannot protect us. Even Justice Lynn Smith, the original Carter trial judge, foresaw the inevitability of wrongful deaths when the healthcare system provides state-sanctioned euthanasia. She suggested strong safeguards that should be “scrupulously enforced.” This bill does little toward establishing concrete guidelines, and life-ending decisions will be made for some patients against their explicit wishes as a result.

Co-authored by Dr. Margaret Cottle and Faye Sonier. Margaret Cottle, MD, CCFP (Palliative Care) is a palliative care physician in Vancouver, BC, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Uni...

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Palliative Care: Time for a Compassionate Approach

Ray Pennings

May 31, 2016

Palliative Care is commonly but mistakenly understood as medical care provided when death is imminent. A broader understanding of this care as including social, psychosocial, and spiritual dimensions most often delivered outside of the health system needs to be cultivated. The reality has not matched the rhetoric in providing palliative care.

A February 2015 Nanos Poll of Canadian public opinion suggested that 73% of Canadians were concerned that they will not receive the comfort and support they would hope to receive if they or a loved one was facing a life threatening illness and nearing death...

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Misreading Carter

John Sikkema

January 8, 2016

In its report released in December, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group On Physician-Assisted Dying recommends that assisted suicide and euthanasia be publicly funded and available for the non-terminally ill, the mentally ill, and for minors. The “declaration” the Report is referring to is the Court’s declaration that certain Criminal Code provisions “are of no force or effect to the extent that they prohibit physician-assisted death for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease, or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.” .

Written by John Sikkema (CLF Associate Counsel), and Derek Ross (CLF Executive Director).

In its report released in December, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group On Physician-Assisted Dying recommends that assisted suicide and e...

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Court's assisted-suicide ruling raises prospect of 'kill at will'

Peter Stockland

February 11, 2015

The idea has quickly taken hold that the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a law prohibiting doctors from assisting at suicides. It did not, says Peter Stockland

The belief has grown since last Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision that we will have legalized doctor-assisted suicide by next year. It’s a terribly mistaken assumption. We might have doctor-assisted suicide. We might just a...

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Assisted dying: When what if becomes what is

Peter Stockland

October 22, 2014

This may seem a distant concern for a far off time dependent on the abstract whims of judges and lawyers breathing rarefied Ottawa courtroom air. It isn’t.

If tone and body language are at all reliable indicators, within the coming year, Canada’s Supreme Court will strike down current laws against assisted suicide. The justices hearing the Carter case on Oct. 15 gave no visual or audi...

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The Core of the Euthanasia Clash

Peter Stockland

October 16, 2014

While the so-called Carter case was argued on the merits of discovering in the Canadian constitution a right to what might be called concierge service suicide, the heart of the discussion was really the balance of power between the courts and Canada's Parliament. All constitutional cases, by their nature, engage that balance in differing ways, particularly when they involve the sections of the Charter of Rights dealing with security of the person and equality rights. Yet Wednesday's forensic test match on euthanasia touched a tipping point that may have been brushed against only 26 years ago in the Morgentaler case on abortion; perhaps not even then. One is the steadfastness with which the government of Stephen Harper has insisted it will not re-open legislative debate on legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide. The government insists Parliament has amply declared itself on the issue by voting repeatedly, emphatically and across party lines to keep the current laws on the books. Indeed, MP Francine Lalonde's last attempt was voted down 228-59 before it could even pass second reading in the House of Commons.

This week's Supreme Court hearing on euthanasia was about life and death, of course, but it is equally about a powerful clash of institutions.

While the so-called Carter case was argued on the merits of discovering in the Canadian constitution a righ...

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Euthanizing Conscience

Nicholas Newman

April 1, 2013

A classic essay by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel aids Dr. Nicholas Newman to frame Quebec’s plan to kill hospital patients

Quebecers will almost certainly find themselves facing the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide as early as June 2013. It would be a fatal mistake for other Canadians to believe it will happen only in Quebec. The eminent writer, thinker, activist...

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Salvation from Medical Suicide

Peter Stockland

June 19, 2012

The judgment was, of course, morally horrifying, intellectually fraudulent, and politically destructive of Canadians as a self-governing people. Nor should we feel warmed by the court's fantastic assurances that supposed safeguards will prevent us sliding down the so-called "slippery slope" of ever expanding forms of medical killing.

No surprise I was in an outraged funk this past weekend over the B.C. Supreme Court's decision striking down federal laws against medically delivered suicide.

The judgment was, of course, morally horrifying, intellectually fraudulent, and politically...

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