A prominent Toronto cardinal says new legislation that will legalize doctor-assisted death amounts to “religious discrimination” that will “force medical professionals to act against their conscience.”
In a video statement that will be played for the congregation at all 225 Catholic Churches across the Archdiocese of Toronto this weekend, Cardinal Thomas Collins predicts that the yet-to-be released legislation will “shock us to the core” by legalizing doctor-assisted death for a wide swath of patients that extends beyond those with a “grave physical illness, who have lived a long life, and are near death.”
Specifically, Collins takes issue with a series of recommendations from a joint parliamentary committee that, if adopted, would provide access to euthanasia for some minors and require that any institution receiving public funding, including Catholic hospitals, provide doctor-assisted death services to eligible patients suffering from “both terminal and non-terminal physical and psychological conditions.”
Collins also criticized a stipulation that would make doctors who refuse to administer euthanasia on moral grounds responsible for referring a patient to a willing colleague.
“It is unjust to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician or, in the case of a health care facility, in order to qualify for government funding,” he said. “It is not tolerant of religious diversity. It is religious discrimination that punishes those who so faithfully serve everyone who comes to them, and have done so since before Canada existed but who, in good conscience, cannot perform some procedures, such as helping to kill their patients.”
The 21 recommendations from the joint parliamentary committee, which were released last week, are intended to guide the federal government as it crafts new legislation following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a previous ban on doctor-assisted-death.
In his statement, Collins said he is concerned that if adopted, the recommendations will effectively “suppress” the rights of Canadians and set a dangerous precedent.
“Once we make people’s worthiness to live dependent on how well they function, our society has crossed the boundary into a dangerous territory in which people are treated as objects that can be discarded as useless,” he said.
Collin’s comments come one day after a Calgary woman, who received a legal exemption, became the first person outside Quebec to die with the help of a physician.
Speaking with CP24 about his decision to speak, Collins referenced the death of his sister to Pancreatic cancer last summer.
“I think of my sister and I am so grateful for the doctors and nurses and all the others who helped her as she was dying and gave her pain killers. That is medical assistance but to kill someone, it is just not right,” he said. “It is a very terrible thing for our society when doctors who are called to bring health and bring life are called to kill people.”
The Supreme Court of Canada has given the federal government until June 6 to craft new legislation on doctor-assisted death.
