This article was published in the Winnipeg Free Press on February 24, 2015 and reposted from Alex Schadenberg's blog Dr Harvey Max Chochinov holds the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care.A few days after the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the prohibition against doctor-assisted suicide, I received a note from a wonderful colleague of mine saying that her closest friend's 53-year-old son had just died of spinal cancer. Two weeks before his death, he had visited his doctor, experiencing "terrible pain." Despite his anguish, his physician refused to give him morphine, claiming that because he was a smoker he was "more likely to become addicted." Continue reading

First published on CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWSFebruary 25, 2015 OTTAWA - McGill University ethicist Margaret Somerville has called for a Royal Commission on "physician-assisted death" as well as for the federal government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to trump the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the matter.In a Feb. 19 letter to Justice Minister Peter MacKay, the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and the Law wrote him of the "gravity" Canada faces as a result of the Carter decision that struck down Canada's laws against physician-assisted suicide. Continue reading

Article first pubnlished in SPIKED ONLINE on the 19th fo FebruaryUsing the language of freedom to justify on-demand death is Orwellian and dangerous. When parliament is paralysed, the courts must act.' So said lawyer Joseph Arvay, representing the appellants in a case about the legal status of assisted suicide, at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) last October. The SCC now apparently agrees; last week it struck down the ban on assisted suicide and gave the government 12 months to draft a replacement law.The decision, made in relation to the Carter vs Canada case, was unanimous. This is surprising given the contested nature of this issue in Canada. The previous landmark ruling, in the 1993 Rodriguez vs British Columbia case, was split 5-4 against upholding motor-neurone-disease sufferer Sue Rodriguez's right to be assisted to die. Continue reading

By Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick (OBE). Article first appeared on Alex Schadenbergs Blog. The Supreme Court of Canada judgment confirms what people with disabilities have always known - assisted suicide and euthanasia (AS/E) are fundamentally rooted in the most heinous discrimination against disabled people - discrimination to death.The assisted suicide lobby in the UK, as in Canada today, has scorned this idea, without rationale. There are terrible purposes at work. The press to legalise assisted death only thinly veils the view that the lives of people with disabilities are not worth living. Continue reading

This opinion article by Peter Stockland first appeared in the Calgary Herald and looks at the significant problems with e Canadian Supreme Court's recent decision. 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 as easily have doctor, lawyer and local Hell's Angel chieftain assisted suicide. Continue reading

This article was published in the National Post on February 7, 2015. By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionThe Supreme Court of Canada has made an activist decision by giving physicians the right in law to cause the death of people by euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Court has made an irresponsible decision, what is more, by using imprecise and subjective language, leaving many issues to be determined by Parliament without objective criteria the decision sets a dangerous precedent that, if unchecked, will lead to the sort of abuses that are now common in the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Continue reading

"Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them that they had started from small beginnings. The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in basic attitude, basic in the euthanasia movement, that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived." (Dr. Leo Alexander, medical advisor at the Nuremburg trials NEJM July 1949) Friday 6th February, Ottawa Canada. The full bench of the Supreme Court of Canada, in the long running case of Carter vs Canada, returned a unanimous decision on appeal that strikes at the heart of the fundamental protections of life, particularly for people in the community whom, for whatever reason are already socially devalued.The Court has directed the Ottawa Government to deal with their judgement by way of legislation within 12 months.Head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Alex Schadenberg said today that, 'The Supreme Court is naïve to think that assisted suicide will not be abused, when abuse already occurs.' Continue reading

By Hugh Scher, Legal Counsel - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Article first appeared on Alex Schadenberg's BlogQuébec's landmark law allowing euthanasia contravenes Canadian criminal homicide laws and represents a dangerous step towards a patchwork quilt of provincial regulation of serious criminal conduct, which is why the issue must be handled federally, says Toronto health, human rights and constitutional lawyer Hugh Scher. Continue reading

This article was originally published by Public Discourse on October 16, 2014 and reposted from Alex Schadenberg's Blog. For both principled and practical reasons, the Supreme Court of Canada should maintain the country's legal ban on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.By John Keown Continue reading

Media Release from The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Canada on the eve of the court case challenging the validity of the Quebec Parliament's euthanasia law. On October 15, the Supreme Court is hearing a case concerning Canada's laws related to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Many Canadians are concerned about whether the laws designed to protect their lives will be upheld by the Supreme Court.The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has intervened in this case at every level. Continue reading