Bill C-407 Dying with Dignity

Our Member of Parliament has unequivocally stated that he will not be supporting Bill C-407, “The Right to Die with Dignity” bill because it is a flawed piece of legislation. It seems that it is also tainted because it was not a Liberal Bill, if one reads Rota’s press release. Because, he says, the Bill deals with moral issues of life and death, I called Bill C-407 up on the internet. (To read Bill C-407 simply go to Google, type in Bill C-407 and look at pages from Canada.)

After reading and considering the Bill, I do not agree with our MP and those ‘many’ people who wrote to him with their concerns. Rota’s concern that this piece of legislation will put us all on the “slippery slope” that leads to “unwanted deaths” sound like a lot of political blather. There are safeguards in the legislation that seem to me to be very reasonable. Some people prefer to die with dignity.

Perhaps Mr Rota would argue that the introduction of ‘Living Wills’ was also a step down the slippery slope, for it may contain clauses that request Do Not Resuscitate instructions in certain instances. The Pro-Longed Life advocates may see this as assisted suicide or euthanasia as well, but there are a lot of people out there who have living wills that have the DNR clause.

Careful reading of this short piece of legislation will show that the safeguards are there for people who are unable to make decisions for themselves. There is a waiting period, a clause about potential life-saving procedures, and the requirement to have proper authorization by medical staff and legal arms-length witnesses.

Mr Rota ought to visit one of our long-term care facilities and talk to all the people who might be most affected by the legislation. And I do not mean a single half-hour visit some fine day, but go back every day for at least a full week and talk to the same people. There is an issue with the quality of life and the desire to die with dignity. Bill C-407 tries to address this for people who feel they want this right to die when they have had enough of a terminal illness or their body has become a prison for them.

People whose religious convictions would never let them sign an order for assisted suicide would never be faced with the option of C-407. It is not mandatory – all it does is remove the medical practitioner from charges under the criminal code for assisting in the termination of a life. The Bill does not open a door of opportunity for relatives to bump of a rich uncle. It simply gives us the option of dying with dignity.

If our MP believes the bill to be flawed, then perhaps he ought to fix the flaws and not simply vote the Bill down because some enlightened Bloc member came up with the legislation rather than a Liberal. If, on the other hand our Member feels he cannot support the Bill on religious grounds, he ought to excuse himself from the debate and the vote. It may be a moral issue, but our morals are not set by his or any other church. They are set by society and a portion of our society has expressed a wish to die with dignity.