Doctor-assisted death is no longer against the law. But guidelines around the practice have not yet been established. Canadians, like doctors and many in the medical field, are divided on the issue.
Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Catholic Archbisop, Anthony Mancini, said Monday it was “unacceptable” and “wrong and immoral”. “It is always tempting to find ourselves drawn in by the allure of popular thinking and fall easily into the trap of following the crowd,” he wrote in a letter that was read to Catholics at mass on Sunday in the Halifax-Yarmouth region.
Advocates say, however, it is a social development whose time has come. It is the solution they say, for people suffering from a “grievous and irremediable” illness.
The Supreme Court ruling went into effect Monday, now making the law against the practice unenforceable. The Canadian government’s proposed bill is in the Senate making its way through the approval process but it could take weeks.
Dr. Gus Grant, of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada, believes doctors are better off without a new law.
“Many voices have created June 6 to be a deadline. It’s not a deadline. It’s simply the day (the Supreme Court’s Carter decision) becomes the law of the land,” Dr. Grant said on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics last week.
Dr. Jeff Blackmer, the Canadian Medical Association’s vice-president of medical professionalism, maintains, however, the federal government’s language needs to be more precise than simply a “grievous and irremediable illness.”
The debate continues.
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