Chaplain's Corner

For some of us, the issue of euthanasia is not even on our radar screen but for many in Canada it is a very important topic of discussion. In the last few months it has been something I have read about, written about, and discussed with doctors and fellow chaplains.

This month, the one year period set by the Supreme Court of Canada for the Government of Canada to pass legislation related to this issue expires. This month, the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling that individuals have the right to die goes into effect. This month, February 2016, a doctor could legally euthanize a terminally ill patient who requests assistance to die without fear of criminal prosecution. Quebec has already passed Bill 52, “An act respecting end-of-life care”. This act provides legislative direction for advanced care directives that include palliative care, palliative sedation and physician assisted suicide.

In the past 15 years private members bills have been tabled in the House of Commons seeking to recognize the right to die and to legalize euthanasia. They have always failed. But when the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal of the Gloria Taylor case from BC, it ruled that sections of the Criminal Code of Canada related to physician assisted suicide were void, opening the door for this practice in Canada.

Does that mean that doctors in Manitoba will be assisting terminally ill people in Manitoba to die right away? Probably not, but it does mean that our parliament or provincial legislatures will begin to have bills proposed in relation to this and that the time will come in every part of Canada that a terminally ill person could ask his or her doctor to help them die.

Some react to this development with applaud. The “right to die” movement is over 120 years old but in recent years (1960s) there has been active discussion and pressure to make choosing one’s time of death a human right. Others are appalled at this development. Applaud or appalled, the “horse is out of the barn” and now each of us need to consider carefully why we respond to this development as we do.

I believe the Supreme Court’s decision is immoral and blasphemous. I understand the Bible to teach that life and death are divine prerogatives; as such human beings have no right to end a life, regardless of the circumstances. We have no right to end a life in the earliest stages of its existence; that is why I reject as evil the violence of any form of abortion, from the “morning after” pill to late term abortions and infanticide. At the other end of life’s spectrum, I reject as evil the violence of any form of euthanasia, regardless whether it is carried out with the knowing consent of the terminally ill person by a physician or any other agent that our governments may name as legitimate purveyors of this “right” established by the Supreme Court of Canada.

People that share this Faith or come to the same conclusion from the perspective of another Faith or from some personal philosophical persuasion must never believe that since this “right to die” now is recognized in Canada that they have some obligation to participate in carrying out another’s desire to exercise the right. Free people have an equal right to object and not refuse to participate due to the objections of their conscience. It is my hope that this right will be respected and protected with the same support as this “new right” the “right to die”.

We can expect a secular society and secular institutions to believe people have rights that are not recognized by God. We must also expect that we may have to “fight” to have the right to object honored by secularists. Are you prepared for this fight?