Monday, September 3, 2012

Legal expert suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold Canada's euthanasia and assisted suicide laws.

Philip Slayton
Philip Slayton, the author of the book: Mighty Judgement, How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs your life suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada will likely uphold the laws in Canada that prohibit euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Slayton, who wrote an article that was published in the September 2012 edition of the Canadian Lawyer asked the question: Assisted Suicide - the issue that rips everyone's heart out - is headed back to the Supreme Court of Canada. What will the court do this time?

Slayton predicts that the Supreme Court will hear the Carter case in July 2013. Considering the fact that the BC Court of Appeal will hear the the Carter case from March 4 - 8, 2013, I think that the Supreme Court of Canada will hear the case after July 2013.

Slayton gives a summary of the majority decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Rodriguez case in 1993 and points out that Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin is the only justice who remains on the bench since 1993 and he expects that she will support legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Slayton states that in Rodriguez - Justice Sopinka held in the majority decision that: society needs to prevent suicide from being encouraged and assisted in an abusive situation.

Slayton then points out that by the time the Supreme Court of Canada hears the Carter case, 7 of the 9 Justices will have been appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Slayton suggests that it is unlikely that the Supreme Court, which is becoming  more Conservative (in his assessment), will overrule the Rodriguez decision.

Slayton then points out that Justice Smith, in the Carter decision, who wrote a "ponderous" decision with everything in it - including the kitchen sink, seems to be saying that times have changed. Slayton indicates that Justices should observe that brevity conveys an idea more powerfully than length. Slayton indicates that Smith based her decision on the belief that times have changed.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition rejects the idea that times have changed, and we hope that the Supreme Court will follow the lead of the Court in the UK who decided that it is the role of parliament to decide if laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide should change.

Nonetheless, Slayton's assessment of the Carter decision is one of many that I have read.

5 comments:

Cindy Palin said...

What can we read, and what can we do in order to share our opinion about being "against' euthanasia and assisted suicide?

Cindy Palin

Alex Schadenberg said...

Join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and keep up to date on what you can do.

You can join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition by emailing: info@epcc.ca

Alex

Ironsides said...

On a recent video, I was pretty rough about my response to Tony McKlinnon in the UK. In the process, I was not clear about what Judges I was referring to.

All I could do after it was posted, was put a note in the description-field.

It is good to know that there still are Judges who hold pro-life values, instead of Judges wanting to be part of the latest social-fad.

We really need to populate Law-schools, medical-colleges and nurses'-colleges with more pro-life people.

Canada has no need to look to Europe for anything. My dad was one of the Canadian Armed-Forces who did combat, to bail Belgium and Holland out from Hitler's takeover of Europe.

Canada was a leader in the world.--And it needs to be a leader in the world again.

Anonymous said...

The more I see of thare doctor-prescirbed death/euthanasia effort here in the US, the more convinced I am that doctor-prescribed death and euthanasia are a solution in search of a problem. Adequate pain management is available; if people are in pain it is the physician who is to blame, not laws prohibiting doctor prescribed death.

People need to know that adequate pain control and comfort measures are readily available.

It is imperative that we continue to oppose this degradation of human
dignity by those who would hasten our exit. YES! It is tragic to note that some of the support for doctor-prescribed death rests on economic motivation. It seems cheaper and more expedient to kill grandmother than to comfort her and support her.

(Deacon) Pete Gummere
St Johnsbury, VT USA

Alex Schadenberg said...

I agree with Pete Gummere, that the more euthanasia and assisted suicide are examined the more one realizes that there are no safe reasons to legalize it and that it will lead to abuse, which means murder or assisted murder.