CPC accuses feds of reckless rush to ease access to assisted dying
Conservatives are accusing the Trudeau government of rushing recklessly to make it easier for intolerably suffering Canadians to receive medical help to end their lives.
The accusation came Friday as the House of Commons began debating a bill that would amend the law on medical assistance in dying to bring it into compliance with a Quebec court ruling last fall.
That ruling struck down a provision in the law that restricted access to assisted dying to those whose death is reasonably foreseeable.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper argued Friday that the government should have appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court rather than trying to rush legislation through Parliament to meet a twice-extended, courtimposed deadline of Dec. 18.
“It need not have been this way, it shouldn’t have been this way and it is regrettable that this government has so recklessly put us in this position by rushing through legislation that arguably could put vulnerable Canadians at risk and removes critical safeguards.”
The government first introduced the bill in February but it didn’t make it beyond the opening stage in the legislative process before Parliament was adjourned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. The bill died when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in August. The government reintroduced it last week.
The bill would scrap reasonably foreseeable death as a requirement for an assisted death but would retain the concept to set out easier eligibility rules for those who are near death and more stringent rules for those who aren’t.
For those deemed to be near death, the government is proposing to drop the requirement that a person must wait 10 days after being approved for an assisted death before receiving the procedure. It would also reduce the number of witnesses needed to one from two.
It also proposes to drop the requirement that a person must be able to give consent a second time immediately before receiving the procedure.
People not near death would face higher hurdles.
Such people would face a minimum 90-day period for assessments of their requests for an assisted death. One of the two medical practitioners who assesses a request would have to have expertise in the person’s particular medical condition. And the person would have to be able to give final consent immediately before the assisted death.
The bill would also ban assisted dying in cases where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.
Cooper argued Friday that the bill is “a radical transformation” from the law approved by Parliament just four years ago, which contemplated assisted dying as “an exception to the rule” only for those already nearing the end of their lives.
“With this legislation, it would now be appropriate to terminate human life even in the absence of a terminal illness and even in circumstances where the suffering is medically manageable,” he said.
Moreover, Cooper argued that the bill goes “well beyond” what was needed by the Quebec court ruling.
Appealing the court ruling would have given Parliament, which was supposed to begin a legally mandated review of the law in June, the chance to consider complexities of the issues and would have provided some clarity about the legal framework in which Parliament can legislate, he said.