Euthanasia Bill C-7 fast-tracked in Committee. Euthanasia lobby dominates Committee witnesses.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On October 29, Bill C-7, the bill to expand euthanasia in Canada, passed at second reading. Every Liberal, NDP, Bloc and Green member of parliament voted in favour of Bill C-7 sending it to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

On November 3, the Committee had its first hearing on Bill C-7. The Committee heard two witnesses from Dying With Dignity and one witness from the Quebec Association for the Right to Die with Dignity.

On November 5, the Committee will hear a witness from the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urged the Committee to approve EPC as a witness at the Committee, but EPC has been ignored. Email the Committee at: just@parl.gc.ca.

*We encourage you to submit a brief to the Committee explaining your concerns with the bill. Please share personal stories in your brief. (Link to submit a brief).

*Sign and share the EPC Petition: Reject euthanasia Bill C-7 (Link). 

*Sign and share the parliamentary petition: No Same Day Death (Link).

Dr Ramona Coehlo

Dr Ramona Coehlo, a family physician from Ontario, made an excellent presentation challenging Bill C-7 and the direction of the government.

Link to Dr Coehlo's testimony at: 12:20:44, 12:38:51 and 12:49:08 (Link).

After the Committee heard the November 3 witnesses a motion was made and accepted that the Committee fast-track the Bill C-7 hearings and reduce the number of hearings to 4. The Committee hearings on euthanasia Bill C-7 will be completed by November 12.

Dr Leonie Herx, the past President of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians will be a witness at the Committee on November 5.

 

How does Bill C-7 expand the euthanasia law in Canada?

Bill C-7 removes the requirement in the law that a person’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable to qualify for MAiD. People who are not terminally ill can be killed by MAiD. The Quebec Truchon court decision, that led to Bill C-7 only required this amendment to the law, but Bill C-7 goes further. Bill C-7:

1. permits a doctor or nurse practitioner to lethally inject a person who is not capable of consenting, if that person was previously approved for MAiD. This contravenes the Supreme Court of Canada Carter decision which stated that only competent people could die by euthanasia.

2. waives the ten-day waiting period when a person is deemed to be “terminally ill.” A person could request death by euthanasia on a "bad day" and die the same day. Studies prove that the “will to live” fluctuates.

3. creates a two track law. A person who is deemed to be terminally ill would have no waiting period while a person who is not terminally ill will have a 90 day waiting period before being killed by lethal injection.

If Bill C-7 is passed, a future court decision will strike down the 90 day waiting period for people whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable because, this provision represents an inequality in the law.

4. reduces the number of independent witness from two to one.

5. falsely claims to prevent euthanasia for people with mental illness. The law permits MAiD for people who are physically or psychologically suffering in a manner that is intolerable to the person and that cannot be relieved in a way that the person considers acceptable. 

However mental illness is considered a form of psychological suffering, which is not defined in the bill. If the government wants to exclude euthanasia for mental illness the bill would need to define psychological suffering to exclude mental illness.

Bill C-7 permits anyone who believes that their physical or psychological suffering is intolerable to die by lethal injection, even if effective medical treatments for their condition exists, after a 90 day reflection period. (Link to Bill C-7).

Contact your Member of Parliament and say that you oppose Bill C-7. The list of Members of Parliament: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/search

More Articles on Bill C-7:

• Stop Bill C-7 from expanding Canada's euthanasia law (Link).
• Does Bill C-7 prevent euthanasia for mental illness? (Link).
• Canadians oppose euthanasia for mental illness and child euthanasia (Link).
• Canadian Bar Association. Bill C-7 will be challenged in the court (Link).