Sign the petition below calling on the Government to preserve the reflection period and the need for two independent witnesses in order to prevent unnecessary premature deaths.
It is shocking how quickly we have gotten here. Five years ago, after the 2015 election, one of the first issues dealt with in that Parliament was a new law that legalized euthanasia. The government came up with a new term for it, calling it medical assistance in dying. At that time, the then minister of health and the then minister of justice said that it was a finely-tuned balance where there was the right mix of safeguards and opportunities.
The government built in a legislative review designed to assess how the euthanasia regime was going five years years later. However, the government decided in advance of the review to remove some of the safeguards that were thought to be vital just a few short years ago.
The government is now introducing a bill to further expand euthanasia. The Liberals have tabled Bill C-7, which would bring in three things about which Canadians should be very concerned.
The new law would bring us:
- Same Day Death – the possibility to receive death on the same day a person requests it
- Death Without Contemporaneous Consent – a situation where people will have their lives taken without being consulted in the moment
- Death Without Two Independent Witnesses – creating countless possibilities for abuses
Death by euthanasia is increasing at an alarming rate in Canada. Same-day death, death without contemporaneous consent, and death without multiple independent witnesses are moving us in a dangerous direction that will leave even more people vulnerable.
Lacking adequate palliative care, Canadians do not currently have a meaningful choice insofar as there is a lack of access to life-supporting options. The government needs to do more for assisted living, instead of removing vital safeguards that protect people around the assisted dying regime.
To learn more about this legislation, please click here.
If you or someone you know has been negatively affected by euthanasia/medically-assisted death, please feel free to share your story directly with MP Garnett Genuis by emailing: [email protected]
Please sign this petition calling on the House of Commons to:
- Restore the 10-day reflection period for people whose deaths have been determined to be "reasonably foreseeable"
- Restore the original requirement that a person must give consent to the life-ending procedure immediately before it is performed
- Restore the original requirements for the signatures of two witnesses, who cannot provide personal care to the person seeking to end their life
- Require medical professionals to do everything possible to enable the person to access life-affirming services to relieve their suffering other than physician-assisted death
- Accommodate persons with communication disabilities by clarifying "refusal or resistance to administration" of physician-assisted death
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