Years ago, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) fought to have assisted suicide and euthanasia legalized in Canada. Now, they’re speaking out against its abuses.
In 2014, the BCCLA was one of several groups that sued over the “the Carter case,” which involved a woman with ALS who wanted to die. In June of 2012, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the ban on assisted suicide and euthanasia violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and granted the plaintiff a constitutional exemption from the ban. The federal government appealed, and the British Columbia Court of Appeals struck down the ruling on technical grounds. Taylor died before an appeal could take place, but the family of a second woman, Kay Carter, continued the suit.
Canada did ultimately legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, and it has quickly become a warning beacon to the rest of the world in regards to so-called “assisted dying.” According to the Telegraph, the BCCLA is not necessarily happy with how things turned out.
The Telegraph said they obtained leaked footage from a video call last year between BCCLA staff and a Canadian disabled patients’ group, with a BCCLA employee admitting that “we are seeing MAiD [medical assistance in dying] being abused.” They spoke of certain examples, such as one person who was approved for MAiD due to hearing loss.
“It is the social and material aspect of [patients] disability and how that isn’t supported and how that’s treated in the community that’s creating intolerable conditions,” one of the BCCLA employees said on the call. “In my view, that’s not proper,” they said, and added that health care providers shouldn’t be raising the issue of MAiD with their patients.
“It’s far too easy for that to become coercive,” they said.
READ: Doctors in Canada pressured to push assisted suicide to save government money
The United Kingdom is currently considering legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, and opponents are pointing to Canada as a cautionary tale as to how quickly it can go wrong.
“One of the most worrying aspects of the Canadian experiment is it shows that once you start legalising, there is a risk that a significant number of physicians normalise this practice,” Trudo Lemmens, a professor of law at the University of Toronto, said. “It’s like putting fuel on the fire. I’m not sure it can be easily contained. Once it’s implemented, there will be advocacy groups pushing for further expansion, and I see that already in the English debate.”
A recent three-part report from Ontario found that many MAID deaths are due not to illness or suffering, but fear, homelessness, and isolation. The report also found that poor and vulnerable populations often face coercion to undergo euthanasia. “With the legalisation of MAiD, real lives are at stake and the dangers of a slippery slope are very real,” Dr. Ramona Coelho, a family medicine practitioner who sat on the expert committee panel, told The Telegraph. “When Canada legalised assisted suicide and euthanasia under MAiD in 2016, Canadians believed it was intended to be a rare, last-resort measure, reserved for consenting adults enduring intolerable suffering at the end of life. However, lobbying efforts have steadily pushed for broader access and eligibility.”
