Update on Bill C-14 - Medically Assisted Death

Today is the deadline given to the Federal government by the Supreme Court of Canada, to come up with new legislation pertaining to Medically Assisted Death.

Julia Beazley is the Director of public policy at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and gives us some insight on what is happening.

Last week the Medically Assisted Death Bill C-14 passed through third reading in the House. The Senate has passed the Bill onto their legal and constitutional affairs committee and they have scheduled two days of hearings so far. Today they will hear from departmental and legal officials and tomorrow they will do a clause by clause analysis of the Bill. The committee has already done a pre-study and presented a report which made recommendations for amendments. Tomorrow they will likely decide on which amendments they are going to make to the Bill if any. The Bill could be back in the Senate for final debate mid-week.

There have been headlines saying that the Senate has ripped the Bill apart. Their concern was that only those near death would be helped by this and they seemed to want to expand the Bill. The legislation says that only those with a terminal or incurable illness whose death was reasonably foreseeable would be the only ones eligible for medically assisted death.

The Senate could recommend that the restrictions that are in the Bill be loosened. The section in question is the one that defines what "grievous and irremediable" means. So this section lays out the conditions that need to be met in order for patients to be eligible. Things like a person needs to be in a state of irreversible decline, incapability, and their natural death needs to be reasonably foreseeable. There are several Senators that have and will be continuing to push for change to this portion, but don't know how many others will agree.

A lot of witnesses who appeared before the committees who want fewer restrictions were claiming that Kay Carter wouldn't have been eligible for Medically Assisted Death under Bill C-14. This claim is being used to advance the argument that the Bill is too restrictive. Last Wednesday when the whole of the Senate heard from the Minister of Justice, she was quite clear in her view Ms. Carter would have absolutely qualified under the Bill. Still the Senate could choose to recommend that those restrictions be either loosened or removed.

There is hope that Senators have also been hearing clearly from Canadians about the need to include strong specific conscience protection and that will be one of the amendments that they recommend. Either way any changes they make to the Bill will mean it has to go back to the House and the changes will have to be made there.

Today is the day that the extension given by the court expires. So this means that technically as of today the courts ruling stands and Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are now decriminalized according to the criteria outlined by the court. It also signals the end of the period in which individuals were able to seek judicial approval to obtain an assisted death. That layer of protection is no longer in place. It is a system that many advocated be put in place across the board as both a way to protect vulnerable people and medical professionals, but that was rejected by the government.  In the absence of federal legislation, determinations can be made on a case by case basis according to the criteria laid out in the Carter Decision. Which have been interpreted very differently by different individuals. Most of the provinces have been working on establishing their own guidelines for physician hastened death. Until and unless there is Federal Legislation in place, it is those guidelines that will be followed.

They think the Bill has a good chance of passing. It depends how much the Senate amends it and whether or not they end up going back and forth between the House and the Senate.

These are practices we are fundamentally opposed to but the reality is it is already happening and it will continue to. There are good reasons why it is important to have Federal Legislation in place. Medical practitioners are a bit nervous about this because what we are talking about are exemptions to criminal code prohibitions against assisting someone in suicide and culpable homicide. It seems preferable that there would be Federal legislation in place across the country that makes it clear what is and isn't okay. So medical professionals and health care providers know.

Julia's shares that in her view in the last month or so we have seen court rulings in 2 provinces that essentially overruled the governments position. This is really concerning. It gives us a good indication that if there are no Federal guidelines that apply across the country we are going to see access to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide that is much more expansive than what's actually allowed for in the Bill.

We can hope that the Senate will add strong conscience protection. That they will not loosen the restrictions and that they will pass the Bill.

It is widely expected that amendments will be introduced. One to enhance conscience protection for individuals and for institutions. That will be good. Strength in conscience protection was approved by the committee in prestudy. Expected also are amendments introduced that will possibly loosen the restrictions in the Bill.

If the Senate does amend the Bill it will have to go back to the House of Commons and they will have to approve.

People need to contact the Senators in their province and let them know that we want to see strength in conscience protection and we don't want to see the Bill loosened.  

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