Delegates at the Liberal Biennial Convention Feb. 20-23 voted in favour of the decriminalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Resolution #165, put forward by the National Women’s Liberal Commission and Young Liberals of Canada, says “the choice to take one’s life when terminally ill is extremely personal” and adults “should reserve the right to decide when their life ends and when their suffering ends.”
After praising the Quebec government’s arguments used in Bill-52 that “medically assisted death constitutes an important part of end-of-life care,” the resolution resolves that “medically assisted death be decriminalized” after a consultation process that would examine “criteria for access” and appropriate oversight.
Pro-life Liberal MP John McKay, who has consistently voted his conscience on life and family issues, noted the resolution received the most debate of all the resolutions passed.
“We’re moving right-to-life issues from covenant to cost-benefit analysis,” said McKay following the vote. “It’s a whole different way of thinking and that’s what moving away from biblically based thinking gets you.
“We are kind of well down that slippery slope and I don’t know if you can do anything other than what Pope Francis has done which is to say our mission is for mercy and so let’s live that,” the evangelical Christian MP said. However, McKay said he doubted the resolution would become part of the Liberal party platform.
McGill University bioethicist Margaret Somerville warned the “right” described in the resolution is broader than assisted suicide and “would extend to euthanasia.”
“How we die is not just a personal decision,” said the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and the Law. “It also affects everyone else, including our families, institutions, especially medicine and the law, and the most important shared values which we all buy into to create the glue that allows us to bond as Canadian society.”
The Liberal resolution came only days after what looked like a small victory for anti-euthanasia forces in Quebec. On Feb. 20, Liberal Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) blocked an expected vote on Bill-52 by insisting each MNA who wanted to speak to the bill be allowed to do so on conscience grounds. Though it had been widely anticipated Bill-52 would be passed before the PQ introduced its budget, the PQ had to abandon the planned vote because of the procedural delay. The National Assembly then adjourned for a two-week break and an election call is expected before MNAs return, which would effectively kill the bill as it stands, though it is sure to be revived after the election.
“I think the battle is heating up,” said Living with Dignity (Vivre dans la Dignité) executive director Nicolas Steenhout. Living with Dignity is a grassroots coalition of anti-euthanasia forces in Quebec.
Steenhout said the PQ is likely to win a majority government and has promised to bring back the bill.
What troubles Steenhout is the negative impact Bill-52 is already having on the national debate through the use of “soft language” such as “medical aid in dying” that “doesn’t scare people quite as much.”
Anne Leahy, who spent years serving in Canada’s diplomatic corps in the former Soviet Union, said Bill-52 represents a “brilliant example” of what she witnessed in that totalitarian regime of the “perversion of language” to “soften the blow” by “twisting words” to make people “more comfortable” by not having “to confront moral issues.”
Somerville agreed, saying the resolution uses “a medical cloak on intentional killing to elicit feelings that it is not ethically and morally wrong.”
Catholic Organization for Life and Family director Michele Boulva called the Liberal resolution “worrisome.” She also noted the Canadian Medical Association is consulting its members and the general public on this issue.
“All this shows how the culture of death has made deep inroads in Canadian society,” Boulva said. “It also shows how effective the pro-euthanasia lobby has been in sowing confusion.”
Now an adjunct professor of religious studies at McGill University in Montreal, Leahy cautioned against “making this a Quebec issue.” She noted the issue came to the forefront in the 1990s with the Sue Rodriguez case from British Columbia and polls show “this point of view of being pro-choice on how to die is shared in Canada, in B.C. in particular.”
“Quebec is just ahead in moving on it.”
Good can come of the debate, she said, noting a rise in opinion pieces against trying to disguise “inducing death as health care.”
“We have to put those arguments out there because not everyone may have made up their minds,” she said.
The focus may be on the Liberals after their convention, but Leahy pointed out the issue divides Conservatives as well.
“Many people who say they are in favour of euthanasia are, in fact, against over-aggressive treatment and they are afraid of suffering,” Boulva said. “They ignore that it is already lawful to refuse over-burdensome treatments or ask that they be discontinued when they are disproportionate with the expected results.”
“I think we can expect to see more and more proposals for euthanasia and assisted suicide due to lack of access to palliative care, lack of options for home-based care and caregiver support, and concerns about medical interventions being continued against our wishes,” said Catholic Civil Rights League executive director Joanne McGarry. “We need to invest more in end-of-life care and encourage people to discuss their wishes with their families and health care professionals.”
McGarry also found the resolution’s assertions that the vulnerable are protected in jurisdictions that allow euthanasia “at best, questionable.”