Constitutional rights are violated

Re: Searching ‘along the 401’ for a place to die, by Anne Jarvis, Feb. 17 The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states: “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (2c) freedom of conscience and religion.”

If we use the charter to defend the rights of one group, we must be consistent therefore in accepting that all sections of the charter hold the same weight. So we cannot take away or limit the freedom of conscience of health-care professionals as it relates to euthanasia.

This does not take away the right of those seeking assisted death. It does not diminish the compassion we can feel for those who have elected, for one reason or another, to end their lives. But we do not have the right to insist that conscientious objectors have no rights with respect to this issue. Nor is it right to treat as pariahs those who seek to follow their consciences. This elevates one conscience to a more important position of rights than another. Certainly the Charter of Rights and Freedoms overrules the argument of public funding.

We must also consider the effect on someone living out the rest of their lives with a breach of conscience that cannot be any more serious for them; the taking, or the assistance in taking, a human life. How can we as a society outlaw the death penalty and still force someone to go against her or his conscience? The argument in this case has most often been that no one has the right to take another life. And yet we are willing to abandon this same justification when asking someone to participate in or facilitate the process of euthanasia. No other country where euthanasia is legal forces health-care professionals to go against their conscience.

Leonard Olszewski, Windsor