Do we really want euthanasia?

I was going through my email alerts and found this letter that was written by Sheila Fisher and published as a letter to the editor in the Brantford Expositor on August 17, 2011.

This is what Sheila Fisher wrote:

I would like to comment on Brian MacLeod's "Point of View" which appeared in the Aug. 8 Expositor.

Mr. MacLeod writes that the Conservative government will not allow a debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide. He knows that a debate on this issue did take place in Parliament and the bill was soundly defeated. I do not think this matter should be decided by the courts but by our elected representative in Parliament.

I feel eminently qualified to speak on this matter because, six years ago this summer, we came home from vacation to find our beloved son, Keith, dead on his bed. He was 32 years of age. He had suffered from bipolar disorder for years and nothing seemed to help.

He had accessed an assisted suicide website and he followed their instructions to the letter. His death devastated our family and the pain never goes away.

Mr. MacLeod seems to believe that a majority of Canadians support legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide. I do not know if this is true, and I do not care. Is our society not corrupt enough? Are we really ready to throw the most basic of all moral principles on the ash heap? "Thou shalt not kill."

Sheila Fisher's story is important to explain to the world how these suicide promoting websites are being accessed by depressed people and how these suicide deaths are devastating to the family.

The other point is that the suicide lobby suggests that the government is not willing to debate the issue of euthanasia. The fact is that Bill C-384 was debated in the previous parliamentary session and soundly defeated by 228 to 59.