Two-tier euthanasia rules proposed
OTTAWA -- The federal government’s proposed changes to assisted suicide will eliminate the requirement that a person’s death be reasonably foreseeable, but the government will not open up the system to the mentally ill at this time.
Psychotherapists wary of new guidelines
Canadian psychotherapists expect to soon find themselves in the same position as physicians when it comes to so-called medical assistance in dying — or MAiD — as the government looks to expand access to legal, medically-induced suicide.
Feds request four-month extension for changes to assisted suicide
OTTAWA -- The federal government wants four more months to change Canada’s assisted suicide rules to comply with a Quebec court decision that came down in September that said the existing regulations are too restrictive.
How far can advance care directive go?
A bioethicist who spent decades urging Catholics to plan for their last days by naming a substitute decision maker in an advance care directive is now incensed at the idea the government will likely allow the directive to be used to invoke euthanasia.
‘Somebody needs to step up’
OTTAWA -- As the federal government moves towards expanding who can access a legal medically-induced suicide, a vocal critic of state-sponsored death is demanding that conscience rights for doctors who don’t want to take part in what the Canadian government calls medical assistance in dying (MAiD) be protected by a federal law.
Cathy Majtenyi: Time to stand up for the gift of life
It’s an impossibly tight deadline that the Trudeau government has deliberately created, but one we must respond to with great urgency.
‘The slope is becoming more slippery’
VANCOUVER -- Living in the region with the highest number of assisted suicides in Canada, Fr. William Hann of the Diocese of Victoria says he has seen much moral distress, broken families and troubling situations.
Peter Stockland: Don’t lose sight of ‘bigger picture’
It’s true there’s a challenge, to say the least, in seeing the “bigger picture” when the picture’s focus is life and death itself.
Palliative care in Canada: Harsh facts, sad realities
The cry for more palliative care continues to grow louder in Canada. While protesting the introduction of legislation expected to expand access to assisted suicide next month, Canada’s bishops joined many advocates in decrying stalled plans to give Canadians the alternative of palliative care.
Euthanasia law survey prompts backlash from Canadian bishops
OTTAWA -- The federal government is coming under increasing fire from critics of legal medically-assisted suicide in Canada for how quickly it is moving to change the regulations around assisted suicide and for how short a time period Canadians were given to express their views in an online survey overseen by the Ministry of Justice.
Cancer survivor fights for hospice’s future
Activists claim assisted suicide lacks safeguards
As most Canadians support fewer restrictions on assisted suicide, disability activists are worried the current system lacks safeguards.
Bishops call for resistance to expanded assisted suicide
EDMONTON -- The bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories are calling on Catholics to mobilize and oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide even as the federal government looks to make it easier to qualify for a medically-induced death.
B.C. hospice to stay true to its call
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- A suburban Vancouver hospice is prepared to forego hundreds of thousands of dollars in government funding rather than bow to government pressure to provide euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Cathy Majtenyi: Euthanasia questionnaire asks the wrong questions
Somewhere tucked between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press conferences earlier this month about the tragedy of the Ukrainian Airlines crash was a bombshell of another kind: changes coming to federal legislation that pave the way for more Canadians to end their lives prematurely.