Doctor Assisted Suicide – mackaycartoons

Tuesday February 25, 2015

February 23, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 25, 2015

Liberals push for draft doctor-assisted death law

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals want the outlines of a new law governing doctor-assisted dying to be clear by mid-summer — before Canadians head to the polls in October.

They’ll try to get the ball rolling Tuesday, introducing a motion that calls for creation of a special parliamentary committee to consult experts and Canadians on the potentially explosive issue.

They want the committee up and running by March 11 and they want it to report back to the House of Commons by July 31 with a proposed legislative framework.

The Liberal motion, to be put to a vote Tuesday or Wednesday, follows a landmark ruling earlier this month by the Supreme Court of Canada, which struck down the ban on physician-assisted suicide.

The top court gave Parliament 12 months to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to seek medical help to end their lives.

The Harper government appears to be in no rush; Justice Minister Peter MacKay has said the government will take its time to thoroughly study the details of the court ruling and look at how other jurisdictions, including Quebec, have dealt with the issue.

The government’s response has sparked speculation that the ruling Conservatives would rather not open debate on the issue, which could expose divisions among their ranks, before the election.

However, the Liberal motion notes there’s not actually much time left to deal with the matter before the court-imposed deadline, pointing to the summer parliamentary break and the fall election.

Parliament is scheduled to sit for just 12 more weeks before taking a 13-week break starting June 24. The campaign for the federal election, slated for Oct. 19, will start in mid-September, before the planned resumption of Parliament. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Posted to Yahoo News Canada.

Friday, October 17, 2014

October 16, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Illustration by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, October 17, 2014

Parliamentary delinquency on assisted suicide

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments in a Charter challenge to our ban on assisted suicide. Kay Carter and Gloria Taylor, the women afflicted with degenerative diseases at the case’s origin, have ended their suffering. Some groups press on in their names, while others defend the law. Whatever the outcome, the case testifies that the House of Commons has ceased to be the place where Canadians debate what matters most to them.

This wasn’t the Supreme Court’s first time considering the right to end one’s life or to receive help in doing so. In 1993, a bare majority of five judges rejected Sue Rodriguez’s claim and upheld the ban on assisted suicide. The only judge from that time still serving is Beverley McLachlin. Then a young judge, she was one of the dissenters.

Court watchers expect Chief Justice McLachlin to rally a majority around her view of autonomy and reverse the earlier decision. The case law under the Charter has evolved. Public opinion around assisted suicide has shifted. Legislative innovation in other jurisdictions offers examples of loosening the ban while establishing safeguards to protect the vulnerable.

But is this the kind of decision best left to the courts? By any standard, it’s an extraordinarily complex, delicate question.

Determining policy on assisted suicide involves our fundamental commitments to the autonomy of the individual and the sanctity of life and entails interpreting those commitments in a secular, multicultural society. It calls for weighing the right to assistance ending one’s life against the risk of abusing that right and exploiting the vulnerable. In our federation, it requires distinguishing the Parliament of Canada’s exclusive power to define the criminal law from the provinces’ power to regulate health. (Continued: Globe & Mail)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

September 26, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, September 26, 2013

It’s time to talk about assisted suicide: Ontario health minister

It’s time for Canadians and their leaders to talk about the taboo of assisted suicide as part of end-of-life care, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews said Wednesday.

But in the end, it’s up to the federal government to decide whether it should be legal, she said.

“I think it’s about the community having the conversation, I think it’s about people having the conversation,” Matthews said.

A prominent doctor’s impassioned, videotaped appeal to legalize assisted suicide just a few days before his death has re-opened the emotionally charged debate.

Dr. Donald Low, who shepherded Toronto through the 2003 SARS crisis, asked that Canada allow people to die with dignity, eight days before he died from a brain tumour last week at age 68.

Low put a human face on the controversial subject, Matthews said.
“Donald Low’s video was very powerful and many people have personally experienced it,” she said.

“There are strong opinions on this. I think it’s a conversation we need to have.”

Matthews said she’d be surprised if the topic doesn’t come up when provincial, federal and territorial health ministers meet in Toronto on Sept. 27.

But she wouldn’t divulge her own view about assisted suicide. (Source: Edmonton Journal)