No Simple Solutions
Over the years, I have learned to be wary of those who promise simple solutions or argue issues within a black and white framework. People who embrace, for example, Donald…
assisted suicide
The Archbishop And Assisted Dying
One of the things that I think distinguishes progressives from rabid reactionaries is that the latter tend to have reflexive positions on key issues, while the former can appreciate nuance.…
Tories Look to Make Death With Dignity a Wedge Issue for 2015 Elections
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the criminal prohibition on physician assisted suicide, Harper justice minister Peter MacKay let’s slip the…
Stuff Happens, week 5: Death and the supreme court; the comeback of measles.
The big story of the week was a Supreme Court decision allowing physician-assisted deaths in certain cases. Polls have shown Canadians solidly in favour of allowing Canadians to die with…
Dying with dignity in Quebec
Quebec’s new Liberal government has decided to reintroduce Bill 52, the end-of-life care bill first tabled by the PQ in June 2013. The legislation will allow terminally ill patients to…
Thoughts on Assisted Suicide
This story in the National Post talks about how quadriplegic Conservative MP and one-time Cabinet Minister Steven Fletcher argues assisted physician-assisted suicide should be an option in Canada, this on…
Torture, The Movies and the Politics of Caregiving
A couple of nights ago, my husband Jim and I went to the movies. We saw Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” – a film already infamous for its portrayal of…
Euros Strongly Back Assisted Suicide Laws
A poll of 12-European countries conducted for the Swiss Medical Lawyers Association found very strong majorities in all but one country in support of legalizing assisted suicide.In almost all the…
Kill Me Now, I’m Disabled – The Assisted Suicide Debate
Yesterday, I was listening to the radio on my drive home from Montreal. I had driven from our cottage in the Quebec Laurentians in the early morning to join my…
Religious Bullshit and Assisted Suicide Law Struck Down
If you are a religious person you know that life is sacred and only god can decide when and how you will die. You also know that god has a…
Assisted Suicide, Discrimination, and the Constitution
Suicide is a difficult case. I do not believe that people, under most circumstances, have a moral right to unilaterally kill themselves. An individual’s life is not the sole property…