Physician Assisted Suicide #2

It has been interesting to follow the debate about physician assisted suicide on the internet and in the various main stream media outlets. For the most part there seems to be a general agreement from both the center and the right leaning media that individuals who have reached the end of their lives or know that that event it going to happen need to have some sort of choice as to the where and when. In fact within a day or so of the Court's announcement it seems to have become a non-issue.

There are those of course, who are immensely unhappy with the Supreme Court's decision. However instead of reasoned logic as to why it is a poor decision, their rhetoric has been irritating and sometimes almost offensive. Take for example the organization Cardus. This organization's links have twice appeared on my Facebook as a  "suggested post". It has been hard to avoid their position. According to its website Cardus is a think tank that " conducts independent and original research in three key areas of North American life". The site also states that it does its research "drawing on more than 2000 years of Christian social thought" (Cardus)". Cardus is clearly opposed to the court's decision. They seem to be arguing that individuals (and one assumes right thinking think tanks) should lobby the Harper government so that when the law gets written the a bill will contain the most restrictive language possible. That is - parliamentarians must be encouraged to make it all but impossible for individuals to have choice; to write a law that says physician assisted suicide is legal and then create so many obstacles and limitations that the average person will not be able to pursue this option. . To suggest as Cardus seems to be suggesting that a small minority of the population should manipulate parliament to ignore the wishes of the majority of Canadians is offensive. The Christian right do not have the right to say what my life should be like or how much suffering I need to experience as I live out my natural life.

The Court gave the government a year to draft a new bill. It would seem to me to be highly unlikely that this government can draft such a bill given that all parties are very close to being in full election mode.  The House will rise for the summer and in all likelihood be unproductive for the few weeks it may sit in the fall. With any luck at all the Conservatives after the election will not form a majority government. Therefore it hopefully becomes moot what the extreme right wants.

Physician assisted suicide is a complex issue. We will probably only have one chance to get it right. It should not be left up to the religious right to decide what is best for all (as they would like to do about abortion). But if middle-of-the-road folks are too lazy, too trusting of the democratic process or for any other reason absolve themselves of the responsibility to engage in the conversation, we once again will get exactly the type of laws that we deserve. We need to talk to our families, our doctors and each other about what we want as individuals and what we want for our society.