Bill C-14, Assisted Dying

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androbot01
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17 Jun 2016, 3:20 am

Huffington Post: Assisted Dying Bill C-14: Liberals Pass On Senate's Near-Death Amendment

Quote:

C-14 would allow assisted dying only for consenting adults "in an advanced stage of irreversible decline"from a serious and "incurable"disease, illness or disability and for whom natural death is "reasonably foreseeable.''

Bill C-14 is bouncing between the Senate and the House of Commons up here in Canada where assisted dying is already legal. The Bill is to fine tune the law. The point of contention between the two bodies is as to whether a person must be close to death to receive help from a doctor. The Senate says no; that it is not necessary for the patient to be close to death, but the Liberals want the "reasonably foreseeable" clause included.

Either way, I think it's great that euthanasia is legal in Canada.

androbot01
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17 Jun 2016, 10:22 am

And so it's back to the Senate:

GLOBE EDITORIAL: The Senate should back down on assisted-death amendment
The Globe and Mail

Quote:

That decision, known as Carter v. Canada, makes no reference to the requirement for a person to be suffering from a terminal illness or to be otherwise near the end of their natural life in order to be eligible for assisted death. Bill C-14, however, limits access to those whose “natural death has become reasonably foreseeable.” This was the clause the Senate took out, and which the House stuck back in on Thursday.

Earthling
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17 Jun 2016, 10:39 am

Good.
I hope this will be strictly regulated, because there may be fraud with assisted death.
I'm certain that if it becomes common that there will be scandals about it, no matter what.

androbot01
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17 Jun 2016, 5:12 pm

Better that than people being forced to live unbearable lives.

YippySkippy
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17 Jun 2016, 7:38 pm

I wish there were such a law for people with Alzheimer's. My mom recently died of this disease - I mean actually died of it. Most people with Alzheimer's are elderly, and die of heart attacks etc. before the dementia completely gets them. But my mother died after 10 years with dementia. She died because she finally (after forgetting everyone she knew, how to walk, how to toilet, etc.) forgot how to swallow food. She got pneumonia from food in her lungs and we had to decide not to treat the pneumonia so she'd die of that and not starve to death. No one should have to go that way.

Kraichgauer
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17 Jun 2016, 7:45 pm

androbot01 wrote:

Better that than people being forced to live unbearable lives.

I second that.

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Noca
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17 Jun 2016, 9:47 pm

For once in history the Senate is actually doing its job.

androbot01
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18 Jun 2016, 11:08 am

Well, the Senate backed down and passed the Bill with the "foreseeable death" clause included:

Assisted Dying Bill C-14 Passes Senate With Liberals' Restrictive Approach

Quote:

Canadians suffering intolerably from non-terminal medical conditions can no longer seek medical assistance to end their lives, thanks to a restrictive new federal law enacted Friday shortly after appointed senators bowed to the will of the elected government.

Bill C-14 was given royal assent less than two hours after senators voted 44-28 to accept the controversial legislation, which limits the right to assisted dying to those whose natural death is "reasonably foreseeable."

The Senate had amended the bill to include those who aren't terminally ill, but the Commons voted Thursday to reject the change.

Rather than kill the bill outright or insist on the amendment and bounce it back to the Commons once again, a majority of senators gave up Friday and accepted the government's version of the bill.

Assisted-dying bill discriminates: Senator James Cowan Senator James Cowan tried to change to Bill C-14 to include people with mental illness

Quote:

Nova Scotia Senator James Cowan, leader of the Independent Senate Liberals, says Bill C-14 discriminates against people with mental illness seeking medically-assisted death.

"Unless you're terminally ill you will not have access to this medical aid in dying and I think that's wrong," Cowan told CBC Radio's Mainstreet.

"There are lots of people who suffer from mental illness but are certainly competent to make decisions about their own lives and make their own choices."

YippySkippy wrote:

...She got pneumonia from food in her lungs and we had to decide not to treat the pneumonia so she'd die of that and not starve to death. No one should have to go that way.

That's awful. I'm sorry you had to go through that Yippy. I believe a patient in the same condition as your mother would be eligible for assisted dying in Canada.

Noca
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18 Jun 2016, 11:11 am

Well I spoke too soon... Good job Senate, you suck.

Kraichgauer
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18 Jun 2016, 1:59 pm

Noca wrote:

Well I spoke too soon... Good job Senate, you suck.

From your post, I take it things didn't work out.

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androbot01
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18 Jun 2016, 8:48 pm

Well, we have assisted dying, but not if the disease isn't life threatening.

I looked into the issue of alzheimer's and it is unclear how the courts will handle the situation. If someone can't swallow food though that seems life threatening. Unless they mean to keep the person on a feeding tube, which would be horrible.

Canada passes assisted suicide bill, critics say it will 'trap patients in intolerable suffering'

Quote:

Critics, including politicians, patients and human rights activists, have been up in arms over the new restrictive law, which allows the luxury of assisted dying exclusively to adults suffering from an "incurable'' disease or disability, "in an advanced stage of irreversible decline.''

"The government's bill will trap patients in intolerable suffering and takes away their hard-won charter right to choose assistance in dying," Josh Paterson, executive director the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, told Canadian Press.

BuyerBeware
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18 Jun 2016, 10:36 pm

YippySkippy wrote:

Sympathies. My Mamaw went the same way. The last four to six months of her life, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Ain't exactly easy on the family, either.

I am a big believer in all life having value and all life being sacred.

Those last six months weren't life. They were torture. I sat by her bed and cried because I didn't have the courage to smother her with a pillow.

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YippySkippy
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19 Jun 2016, 7:53 am

Quote:

I sat by her bed and cried because I didn't have the courage to smother her with a pillow.

I thought the same thing. I didn't do it because I couldn't risk going to prison with young children to raise. I certainly wouldn't have worried for one second about the morality of it, though.

visagrunt
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28 Jun 2016, 3:06 pm

Noca wrote:

For once in history the Senate is actually doing its job.

You might bear in mind that the reason that Canadian women have unfettered access to abortion is because the Senate defeated bill C-43 in 1989.

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