Protestors against the legal right to euthanasia and assisted suicide gathered on the steps of the B.C. Supreme Court to voice their opposition. Photo by Brent Mattson / The B.C. Catholic.Carter case hits the B.C. Supreme Court
By Deborah Gyapong
The Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN)--The battle to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide that was lost in Canada’s Parliament in 2010, moved to a Vancouver courthouse Nov. 14, but pro-life forces are fighting back.
On Nov. 14 in Vancouver, the B.C. Supreme Court began hearing arguments in Carter vs. Attorney General of Canada that challenges Canada’s laws against assisted suicide and euthanasia. The Carter case, brought by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association on behalf of Lee Carter and four others, seeks to have assisted suicide treated as a medical instead of criminal issue.
“Canada’s ‘right-to-die’ lobby is currently attempting to bypass the political process by going to the courts,” said Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) director Michele Boulva in a letter to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) executive director Alex Schadenberg dated Nov. 9.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) and EPC-BC have intervener status in the case and will argue against decriminalizing assisted suicide. Boulva wrote that COLF “fully supports” their intervention and “invites all Canadians concerned about the perils of euthanasia to sign the EPC’s petition urging the Attorney General to take whatever measures he can to prevent euthanasia and assisted suicide from becoming legal in our great country.”
“Concerns about safety, security and equality of people with disabilities and seniors will be central to the arguments advanced by EPC before the court, as will concerns about medical ethics and the proposed change in the doctor-patient relationship,” said EPC legal counsel Hugh Scher in a statement.
““I see elder abuse in my practice, often perpetrated by family members and caregivers,” said EPC-BC chair Dr. Will Johnston, a family doctor in a statement. “ A desire for money or an inheritance is typical.”
“To make it worse, the victims protect the abusers. In one case, an older woman knew that her son was robbing her blind and lied to protect him,” he said. “Why? Family loyalty, shame, and fear that confronting the abuser will cost love and care.”
“Under current law, abusers take their victims to the bank and to the lawyer for a new will,” he said. “With legal assisted suicide, the next stop would be the doctor’s office for a lethal prescription. How are we going to detect victimization when we can’t do it now?”
EPC executive director Alex Schadenberg said in an interview he finds it “very scary” that pro-euthanasia and assisted suicide advocates are pressing the courts to treat these as medical issues, undermining the Criminal Code protections for vulnerable disabled people, those seriously ill, those who are deeply depressed and frail elderly people.
A case has also been filed in Trois Rivières, Quebec by Ginette Leblanc who has ALS, the same disease that prompted Sue Rodriguez to take her battle for a legal assisted suicide to the Supreme Court of Canada 20 years ago. After losing the case 5/4, Rodriguez found someone to help her end her life. No one has ever been charged in her death.
Schadenberg said the Leblanc case could go ahead in December, but the Leblanc and Carter cases may join if one of them goes to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The ECP warns that should Carter win, even a family member could administer a lethal dose to a relative at home. It notes that the Carter’s Amended Notice of Civil Claim says physician-assisted suicide means “an assisted suicide where assistance to obtain or administer medication or other treatment that intentionally brings about the patient's own death is provided by a medical practitioner . . . or by a person acting under the general supervision of a medical practitioner."
The EPC warns the Carter case would not only legalize assisted suicide, but also euthanasia, while the LeBlanc case, which is more similar to Rodriguez’, would only affect the law against assisted suicide.
Schadenberg pointed to the story of John Coppard, 45, a veteran of Afghanistan and Bosnia, who said he might have killed himself two years ago when he received a diagnosis of an aggressive brain cancer if assisted suicide had been legal at the time.
On his blog, Schadenberg reported Coppard “became depressed when he realized his career was over, he’d probably never be a father or a grandfather, and his chance of surviving even five years was just 20 per cent.”
But a new therapy has put his cancer in remission and the Victoria resident recently bought a sailboat.
“For those of us living with life threatening conditions, the system as it is offers us incredible hope,” Coppard told Schadenberg. “New therapies are discovered all the time. Everyone knows someone who was offered a terrible prognosis that turned out to be wrong. Doctors work hard to offer us the best chance at a long life and sometimes, recovery. I know mine are”
Coppard also expressed concern about how legalizing assisted suicide would affect the trust relationship patients have with their physicians.
“When you’re diagnosed with something like brain cancer or ALS, your treatments are very complex. You put a lot of trust in your doctors, your health care system, and those closest to you to steer you through your illness. In my case I trust them completely. If assisted suicide is on the table, however, who will I be able to trust?”
“I don't want any heroics. I'll go when it's time for me to go. But not when my medical system thinks it's too expensive to keep me alive, or when my doctor thinks I'm too much work.”
EPC-BC mounted a demonstration on the steps of the Vancouver courthouse on the first day of the trial.
