Canada will legalize euthanasia for handicapped people and children

[link to www.catholicworldreport.com]

On February 25, the USA’s neighbor to the north heard from a special Parliamentary Committee on physician-assisted dying. Sadly, its recommendations to the government go far beyond what the Supreme Court envisioned with its ruling about the suffering of those in “grievous and irremediable” medical situations.

This special Parliamentary Committee has introduced new proposals for Canada that, due to their extremely wide scope, are breathtaking. It has recommended providing euthanasia for consenting minors (i.e., children under 18), for those with mental health conditions or any other kind of disability (which could include anything from schizophrenia to autism, from eating disorders to depression, or from fetal alcohol syndrome to acquired brain injuries), and for anyone who, while competent, gave legal directives for euthanasia to be implemented when they became non-competent (which could therefore include people who go on to suffer from dementia).

The Committee has also recommended that any institution receiving public funds be compelled to provide physician-assisted death. This would of course include Catholic institutions, despite the opposition of such institutions to euthanasia. The Committee recommendations do not leave room for conscience rights of health-care providers. Instead, doctors not willing to euthanize their patients would be required to refer them to doctors who will euthanize them. In other words, they would be compelled against their very consciences to cooperate in the newly implemented euthanasia practices.