M.A.

Grade 10
Religion Block F

Assisted Suicide
This past Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, was a sad, even tragic, day
for our country. The Supreme Court of Canada grievously
stripped Canadians of the protection that up until then, the
law had protected us against assisted suicide. The court
ruled that people with painful and terminal illnesses should
have the right to get doctors in assisting them to die; this
ruling was unanimous. The ruling only applies to competent
comprehensive adults with intolerable pain and suffering
who fully give consent to ending their lives. The court has
given provincial and federal governments a year to make a
law in response to this ruling; the ban against assistedsuicides remains until then. Although the governments are
given 12 months, many of these months will be covered
already by campaigning, summer break and prepping for
elections. This case was brought by the B.C Civil Liberties
Association because of two women who died while fighting
for this, they both had terminal diseases and wanted
assistance in dying. They feel they were both discriminated
against because they physically could not commit suicide
alone, as a regular person would have been able to. The
ruling from the Supreme Court is not limited to people with
physical disabilities. The court gives all costs to the BCCLA
and other advocates for this ruling, as the Canadian
government and B.C in particular has taken the weight of the
cost. The main argument in this case is the difference
between someones duty to live, and right to live.
Doctors are not forced to assist in suicide and the court
leaves it up to the physician to decide which course they
wish to take. The court finds that every individual person has
a different response to pain, and its intolerability, and that
by taking away the right to die is to allow suffering to that
person. The ruling however it may be is still quiet about
whether depression, mental illnesses or a lack of proper
mentality count as a medical condition enough to induce

assisted-suicide. There are still

many questions to be answered
and not many answers given on
specific situations and criteria.
Most Canadians do support this
change however. Our conservative
MP Steven Fletcher states, If it
[the ruling] went to a free vote in
Parliament, it would pass. He
again states that there is to be
some restriction to prevent abuse
of this power and to prevent
unnecessary deaths. Shockingly,
84% of Canadians support doctorassisted death in appropriate situations.

Definition and Laws

What is assisted suicide? It is the
suicide of a human who is greatly
suffering from an incurable, terminal
disease.
They
commit
suicide by
taking
lethal
drugs, injections or treatments
given by their physicians who
essentially assist them in
dying. Assisted suicide laws
around the world are clear in
some nations but unclear, if
they exist at all, in others. Just
because a country does not
have a defined criminal code on this specific action does not
mean all assisters will go free. For example, Sweden has no
law specifically saying you cannot commit assisted suicide.
Instead the assisters might be charged an assister with

manslaughter. Suicide is not a crime in Canada and has not

been since 1972, but physician-assisted
suicide is illegal. However, due to very recent changes we
now allow the assistance of death, in the right
circumstances. Before this new ruling, we also banned it and
there would be an assisted manslaughter charge of about 14
years if broken. Our neighboring country the U.S however
has very different laws, assisted-suicide laws in the U.S.
allow the practice only for those who are critically ill and
have six months or less to live, and the rules require the
patient to administer the medication themselves. European
laws on medically assisted death are broader than those in
the U.S., with most allowing doctors to prescribe and
administer lethal drugs and not setting conditions tied to life
expectancy (as how the U.S only allows people with less than
6 months to live). The eligibility is not restricted to terminal
illness. It includes terminal illness but it is not limited to
unbearable suffering.

Relevance to Our Times

Assisted suicide laws and rates are booming across the
country, and the world. People today have a very obvious
disregard for life, being other people or theirs. In recent
years, debates have swirled over whether or not physicians
should be allowed to hasten the death of their incurable
patients. Assisted suicide is relevant to our times because
this pro-euthanasia movement has started in our times, and
we are in the middle of it as we speak. It is an important
issue because it deals with the purposeful ending of a life.
Many people feel that life should be preserved at all costs,
no matter what, like our Catholic Church. Others feel that it
should be OK for someone to end their life due to
circumstances beyond their control. The two groups will
never be able to meet in the middle. The issue of euthanasia
is about quality of life. When life becomes a burden to self
and family, often it is seen as intolerable. It runs up against
the religious issue of the sacredness of life and who has just
cause to take away what God has freely given, and so it is

not truly ours to give and take. It is a loaded ethical question

that can be answered morally or secularly. It's unnecessary
from a moral view. One sealed his doom if he embraces it.
Secularly, it beats suffering, physical and emotional pain.

Personal Connection
The reason why I feel so strongly about assisted suicide is
not only because I am a devoted
Catholic, and that it goes against
my moral intentions, but that I
can personally relate to suicides
in the family and the sudden,
imperative loss that it has
burdened my family with, even
today. In late 2014 my family got
a call around midnight that one of
our old great-aunts had gone for a
picnic with her husband and that
she has purposefully gone into the lake to drown herself. As
much as anyone had tried to save her, she had made the
choice and could not be saved from so far away. There had
been many hints that she was depressed and the biggest
would be that she had given all her jewelry to her grandkids
the day before. This was the second time that I had dealt
with such a sudden death and I was shocked and upset that
such a thing could happen in my family. It was the first time
that someone had chosen willingly to commit suicide. The
first time that I had experienced a death is the reason I so
strongly relate to this article about physician-assisted
suicides. One of my aunts, my second cousins mother, had a
blood clot for quite some time and she was very sick,
however she would still be with us today if her doctors had
given her the medicine and treatment she was supposed to
receive, the hospital took shortcuts and they ended with the
consequence of my aunt dying. I feel that being a doctor is
not a job but a service, and that the service is to ensure life,
not destroy it. Both these experiences together made me

feel so strongly about this topic and why assisted suicide

should be banned, in all places.

Catholic Morality
"Intentional euthanasia, whatever
its forms or motives, is murder. It is
gravely contrary to the dignity of the
human person and to the respect due
to the living God, his Creator"
(CCC 2324). The Church views
euthanasia and assisted suicide as the
direct killing of a human being and,
therefore, an immoral act. Support for
euthanasia and assisted suicide is not
a matter of prudential judgmentthere
are never any reasons that justify such killing: "Whatever its
motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an
end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is
morally unacceptable" (CCC 2277). This view of death affects
how we as Catholics make decisions regarding care at the
end-of-life. For some people, end-of-life care involves the
blessings and struggles that accompany old age. For others,
it involves medical decisions that must be made without
warning as a result of a sudden illness or accident that can
affect people of any age. In these situations patients and
their loved ones must choose which course of action, if any,
keeps the dignity of the person who is about to die. While
the Church recognizes, and encourages compassionate care
that reduces the suffering of those who are near death, She
also vigorously teaches that immoral means (such as
euthanasia or assisted suicide) may never be used to reduce
suffering even if they are used with good intentions. Some
Catholic morals that are violated would be the lack of
respect for the gift of human life and the lack of dignity of
each individual person. Therefore, the following principles
are morally binding: First, to make an attempt on the life of
or to kill an innocent person is a vice. Secondly, each person

is bound to lead his life in accord with God's plan and with
openness to His will, looking for life's fulfillment in heaven.
Finally, intentionally committing suicide is a murder and
considered a rejection of God's plan. God gives our gift of life
to us, not so that we can use it for our temporary pleasures
but for the ultimate good that God always wants for us. We,
as receivers of this gift, do not have any
right to throw it away at out whim; it is
not really ours to take or to give. It is
seen as a lack of appreciation of life to
God when we commit suicide, harm
others, assist in death and many other
actions that go directly against the
Churchs thinking. However, no one
wants to suffer. Although that, we must
remember that each of us was baptized
into Christ's passion, death and
resurrection. We all share in our Lord's
cross and that, at times, can be very
painful. This suffering, however,
especially at the last moments of one's
life, must be seen as sharing our Lord's sufferings. By uniting
our suffering with our Lord's, we deliver from us the hurt
caused by our own sins and help to take away the sins of
others, just as some of the early martyrs did who offered
their sufferings for sinners, people like us. Sometimes, such
suffering finally heals the wounds that have divided families,
nations, and the world. In all, we have to look to God to aid
us in our suffering and guide us from this life to His life, in
Heaven.

Personal Opinions/Reasoning
In my personal opinion I do not agree with the physicianassisted suicide ruling, because of my moral views as a
Catholic and my personal connections that make supporting
this topic impossible. Assisted suicide is most commonly
contemplated by the terminally ill. Terminally ill patients do

suffer greatly, but is it the physical pain they suffer from?

Many doctors seem to believe it is depression that leads
these patients to desire suicide. "USA Today has reported
that among older people suffering from terminal illnesses
who attempt suicide, the number suffering from depression
reaches almost 90%" (Why We Shouldn't Legalize Assisting
Suicide). Doctors believe that any person with a
disabling/terminal disease who doesn't suffer from
depression is "abnormal." What is hard for these people to
understand who are pro-euthanasia is that depression is
treatable and even curable, and that wanting to die for a
short period of time does not constitute or allow for people
to freely be allowed to die. A person would suffer a lot less
physically if they suffered less mentally. Some medical
doctors also feel this way. I think depression factors in
greatly with the terminally ill
patients, some more than
others do. Let's take AIDS
patients for example. In
time, they suffer greatly
physically and mentally.
Does this constitute their
ability to have suicide
granted upon request? No, if
it were, millions of people
would die, and look how silly
and meaningless life would seem if it were legal to have your
own life taken, at any time for any reason. Physician-assisted
suicide in foreign countries has proved to be catastrophic. "In
1990, physicians in the Netherlands were involved in 11,800
deaths, or 9% of all deaths in the country. Of these, half were
labeled "active involuntary euthanasia", that is, the patient
was killed without his consent" (Ohio Right to Life). For
example, "by the late 80's it had become routine to
"euthanize" babies born with handicaps, like Downs
syndrome. Three nurses in Amsterdam killed several
comatose patients without any consent. They were
convicted, not of homicide, but of failing to consult a
physician" (Ohio Right to Life). All these things seem

ridiculous and should definitely be illegal even if looking at it

from a humane point of view, if not Catholic.
Canada and The United States should learn from the
mistakes of other nations and think twice about making
physician assisted suicide legal. Assisted suicide and
euthanasia has already sent over a hundred people to their
graves. Each one did request to die, and each one was living
a life of pain. These people refuse to let life takes its natural
course. He continues to do the work of God. God created
man and God should be the one to take man away. Life is
taken for granted all too often; people always look for the
shortcuts, the easy way out. Death should never be
someones last resort; there will always be an alternative to
suicide. Humans cannot be compared to animals either. We
can't be taken to a veterinarian to be put to sleep forever. It
is immoral and dehumanizing. People rarely think about how
precious life is. Feelings of depression and guilt often
overwhelm the sick. They only think of one way out. If
assisted suicide or euthanasia were to be legalized, the
already declining morals and ethics of our country would be
further worsened. Making it legal to kill is immoral, and goes
against our duties in society, to be helpful and valuable.