Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
Margaret Somerville, founding Director of McGill University’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, criticizes the report of Quebec’s Select Committee on Dying with Dignity on the ground that it is unbalanced “and reads rather like a pro-euthanasia manifesto.” She notes that two thirds of the submissions received by the Committee opposed euthansia. [The Gazette]
The Select Committee on Dying with Dignity has tabled a report unanimously recommending “relevant legislation be amended” to allow euthanasia in the province of Quebec. The Committee also recommends that objecting physicians be forced to refer for the procedure. According to the recommendations, conscientious objections by nurses will be allowed, but it does not indicate whether or not they should be compelled to participate in or facilitate the procedure by referral or other means. The Committee recommends that codes of ethics for physicians and nurses be amended accordingly. The recommendations are available in English, but the report will not be available in English until May [Quebec National Assembly].
In a document addressing the issue of advance directives, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe included the statement, “Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.” While the document is not legally binding on member states of the European Union, it has persuasive weight. It thus seems less likely that health care workers who object to euthanasia will be pressured to participate in the procedure. However, the document makes no reference to assisted suicide. [Resolution 1859 (2012)]
In response to a question about the recommendation of a private commission chaired by Lord Falconer, the British Secretary of State for Justice has stated that assisted suicide should not be legalized by policy, but by a decision of Parliament enacted in legislation. [Hansard]
The Commons Backbench Business Committee has decided that the House of Commons in the United Kingdom will debate the assisted suicide guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2010. The guidelines had the effect of leaving the regulation of assisted suicide in the hands of police and Crown Counsel, though the practice remained a criminal offence. Conservative MP Richard Ottawa will ask the Commons to approve or reject the guidelines, and there is a chance that the debate could lead to legalization of the procedure in those cases excluded from prosecution by the guidelines. [BBC]