Margaret Somerville, founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law at McGill University, calls the Royal Society of Canada's euthanasia report a “thinly veiled euthanasia and assisted suicide propaganda.” CNS Photo/courtesy of McGill University.Report "symptomatic of an ideology of death," critics say
By Deborah Gyapong
The Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN)--Opponents of euthanasia have slammed a Royal Society of Canada (RSOC) expert panel report advocating decriminalizing of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
Founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law Margaret Somerville called the “End-of-Life Decision Making” report “a “pro-euthanasia manifesto” and “thinly veiled euthanasia and assisted suicide propaganda.”
The report, released Nov. 15, failed its mandate to provide a balanced review of arguments pro-and-con, Somerville said. Five of the six authors were well-known pro-euthanasia world-leaders, she said.
The Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) called the report “symptomatic of an ideology of death.”
“In this report personal autonomy and self-determination are extolled at the expense of the common good and it is argued that the ‘prophesied undesirable social consequences are not sufficient to negate the right to choose assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia,’” COFL says in a Nov. 20 news release.
“Without regard to the respect due to human life – and every human life – this document places great emphasis on the challenges and costs associated with our aging population,” COLF says. “Reading between the lines, it is clear that assisted death – a phrase coined to hide the deadly nature of euthanasia and assisted suicide – may be a solution to the ‘problem.’”
Somerville also notes the study’s the authors say the issue of the euthanasia of "demented" people will need to be addressed in the future, adding “they don’t reject the possibility that this might be acceptable.” The panel was commissioned by the RSOC, she adds, but only one panelist is actually a member of the RSOC. It is misleading to refer to their report as a RSOC report, Somerville said, because doing so gives it “unmerited” credibility.
COLF points out the RSOC recommends compelling health professionals, who on conscience grounds refuse to participate in assisted suicide or euthanasia, to refer people to another health care provider.
While the RSOC expert panel recommends the development of palliative care, COLF says including liberal access to euthanasia and assisted suicide is “absolutely incompatible with the principles and goals of palliative care.”
The RSOC panel asserts “public support for the decriminalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia remains high (a substantial majority of Canadians support the decriminalization of assisted dying).”
But Life Canada, a national pro-life educational organization, disputed that level of support.
“Our September 2011 Environics poll asked 2000 individual Canadians what they thought about euthanasia and the results are not reflected in the RSOC report,” said a Nov.16 LifeCanada news release. “The survey found that people want improved palliative care for the dying, but have real misgivings about legalizing euthanasia - due to the impact on the elderly and most vulnerable. In short, people want to kill the pain rather than the patient.”
The Environics report shows 66 per cent of Canadians think government should place a high priority on access to palliative care; 76 per cent expressed concern that legalized euthanasia could lead to pressure on elderly people to consent to it. A vast majority of Canadians (74 per cent) also expressed concern that legalizing euthanasia would lead to large numbers of elderly, disabled or sick people being euthanized without their consent.
While the RSOC expert panel report got panned, the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care report “Not to be Forgotten—Care of Vulnerable Canadians” released Nov. 17 won COLF’s approval.
The report “offers a comprehensive look at palliative care and the end of life — including pain management and caregiver support – suicide prevention, elder abuse and a disability perspective on health care and inclusive community living,” COLF said.
COLF said the parliamenary report incorporates many of the proposals in COLF’s brief to the committee. Among recommendations singled out for praise: “the restoration of the Palliative Care Secretariat, the development and implementation of a National Palliative and End-of-Life Care Strategy, a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, and the establishment of an Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention Office, (as well as the development and implementing of a National Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy).”
COLF described the two reports as offering “diametrically opposed visions” of Canada’s future: a country “marked by solidarity with the most vulnerable—that respects the dignity of citizens until natural death—or a country moved by false pity that eliminates those who believe life is not worth living anymore and patients who are too expensive to the state.”
