Canadian bishops urges splitting Bill C-41, rejecting advance euthanasia requests

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is urging the federal government to split the contentious Bill C-41, the Medical Assistance in Dying Safeguards Act, into two separate pieces of legislation ahead of a key second reading vote expected soon.

If the ruling Liberals do end debate over C-41 on Nov. 16, an intention they have signalled in recent days, a vote on whether to advance this bill onto committee study could be scheduled for as soon as Nov. 17. This legislation, tabled Oct. 27, is advancing quickly as the deadline to nullify the automatic broadening of euthanasia access to individuals exclusively living with a mental illness is March 17, 2027.  

An 18-page written brief approved by the Permanent Council of the CCCB before it was sent to Parliament on Nov. 12 calls on lawmakers to maintain the exclusion of euthanasia and assisted suicide access for individuals solely experiencing a mental illness, and to reject the provisions decriminalizing advance requests for the medical killing procedure.

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Furthermore, the bishops encourage Canadian Catholics to review a CCCB fact sheet on Bill C-41 and participate in a letter-writing campaign to their member of Parliament.

The campaign letter notes how a joint parliamentary committee recommended retaining mental illness exclusion indefinitely “following sustained examination of evidence from experts and people directly affected.” Advanced requests, on the other hand, “have not received the same sustained, wide-ranging federal scrutiny.” The MPs are asked to “insist on an equally thorough examination of the evidence.”

Bishop Emeritus Noel Simard of the Valleyfield, Que. diocese was a key collaborator in assembling the parliamentary brief. His bioethical expertise is sought because he is an executive member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and he taught the subject at the University of Sudbury and Saint Paul University in Ottawa for many years.

In an interview with the Catholic Register, Simard, a longtime spokesperson for the CCCB, declared that advance directives compromise a person’s innate dignity.

“The dignity of a human person does not rely upon the capacity to speak, the capacity to have a relationship with people,” said Simard. “It is an inherent dignity based on the fact that ‘I am a person created in the image and resemblance of God.’”

He added that because we live in a “civil society focused on efficiency,” individuals who cannot contribute to societal wellbeing are deemed undeserving of care.  This reality is acute for people who lose decision-making capacity.  

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“Another issue is ‘I don’t want to be a burden for my family or society. I want to finish my life when I am still conscious.’ If you have contributed to your family and society, let your family members and society take care of you. It is all about compassion and solidarity. The more a society takes care of its weakest members, the greater a society is,” said Simard.

The brief contains many more legal, medical and ethical arguments against advance requests for euthanasia, drawing extensively on clinical research, Canadian case law and international disability-rights recommendations, including concerns over how a medical practitioner or nurse might construe a request and a person’s present responses.

The bishops also cite evidence from provincial oversight systems, including a B.C. Ministry of Health oversight report obtained by Canadian Catholic News through a freedom-of-information request. The previously undisclosed report found that more than half of reported MAiD case outcomes required follow-up. It detailed thousands of errors in records, including 353 requiring education about legal requirements or professional standards.

In the likely event Bill C-41 proceeds to committee with the mental illness and advance directive measures still bound together, Simard confirmed that the CCCB wants to be called as a witness to testify in front of the committee tasked with studying the legislation. He said the CCCB would call for parliamentarians to reject any broadening of euthanasia access and endorse thorough study of advance requests.

A parliamentary examination of advance directives, per the brief, should probe the “reliability of judgments about suffering and present responses after capacity has been lost; conflicts between an earlier request and the person’s current circumstances; the possible influence of an advance request on other treatment decisions; and the effects of inadequate care, social isolation, and pressure from others.” Additionally, the bishops recommend a systematic study of the advance requests experience in Quebec.

“Parliament has a responsibility to examine these questions before considering a change with irreversible consequences for people who can no longer give informed consent,” stated the bishops. They also underscored that “resolving these practical failures would not remove the Catholic Church’s moral objection to euthanasia.”

They also call for strengthened conscience protections, including for institutions, noting that Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, is a defendant in a lawsuit challenging policies that allow faith-based institutions to decline to provide MAiD.

Along with the government needing to embark on an educational journey, Simard said the CCCB needs to work with parishes to educate the people in the pew to “help them see the big gaps when government or civil (institutions) enact laws that are not morally justified.”

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To learn more, visit cccb.ca.

-- With files from Paul Schratz, Canadian Catholic News --

(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)