Calls to euthanise babies and children in Canada, as government considers wider law

Authorities in Canada face calls for euthanasia of newborn babies and children, following a rapid expansion of legislation in the country.

The government is weighing a call by a parliamentary committee to euthanise 'mature minors' who are terminally ill.

Another physician from the Quebec College of Physicians says newborns with 'severe malformations' should be eligible.

Alex Schadenberg, an anti-euthanasia medic, told the Mail: "Now we've legalized euthanasia, everything's turning upside down".

"It used to be seen as a last resort. Now, we think in terms of denying people a service that should be available to them", he warned.

Canada legalised physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in 2016 after years of pressure from pro-suicide campaigners.

Initially limited to people with a terminal illness, Canada's 'Medical Aid in Dying' framework now allows access by many groups.

People with conditions that cannot be treated in a way 'acceptable to them' and even disabled people can access assisted death.

Media reports also highlight shocking cases of people with health concerns opting for maid due to the threat of homelessness and poverty.

UK campaigners are vying to see Canadian-style legislation passed in the Scottish Parliament, Jersey, and the Isle of Man.

CARE is opposing legislative attempts to introduce the practice. Our official response to the Scottish proposals cautioned:

“Introducing assisted suicide would integrate into our culture the belief that certain lives, far from being worthy of protection, merit the active intervention of doctors for the purpose of securing their demise. This is deeply problematic. ‘Assisted dying’ of the sort proposed would send a confusing and regressive signal that certain lives are no longer worth living, which would also undermine society’s wider anti-suicide message.”

“The Chairman of the Royal College of GPs has warned that years of underinvestment in GP services means that providing safe and personalised care for patients is ‘becoming increasingly undoable’. Patients are waiting a long time to receive care and may feel desperate about their situation.”

“There is a huge risk that this lack of choice of palliative care combined with the provision of a state sanctioned/state regulated assisted suicide will result in some terminally ill patients reluctantly opting for an assisted death when they would have preferred to live their life to completion with appropriate symptom relief.”

“Even a cursory examination of the small number of jurisdictions where a form of assisted dying has been legalised shows that criteria are widened, and safeguards simultaneously eroded, over time. Once a practice is legalised, it soon becomes normalised, and it would be a matter of time before restrictions would be progressively removed”.