Ending of Life Ethics Archives
Ending of Life Ethics
June 16, 2010
Deadly Compassion
People with disabilities are not strangers to the fact that nondisabled people cannot imagine life with a disability. They tell us that they would rather be dead than living with a disability. This is because disability is equated with pain, suffering, and dependency. At times, this attitude translates into a deadly compassion, where it is seen as a kindness to help a person with a disability to die. As a result, people with disabilities are being harmed. Today, two Canadians with disabilities, Rhonda Wiebe and Jim Derksen, appear before the House of Commons Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care to explain how deadly compassion puts us in harms way and to suggest how to detoxify the medical care and public policy environment, as both are affected by this insidious stereotype. Read more.
July 24, 2009
Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) Opposes Bill C-384
The COUNCIL OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES (CCD) believes that everyone who supports disability rights should oppose Bill C-384 which would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide and put Canadians with disabilities at risk! Read more.
Latimer
June 4, 2008
Tracy Latimer, the Victim; Robert Latimer, the Murderer
CCD explains why people with disabilities are concerned about Latimer's release from prison and his stated intentions to clear his name. The disability community is concerned about Latimer's potential to act as a catalyst, mobilizing pro-Latimer public sentiment that has been dormant since the Supreme Court sent him to prison back in 2001. Any climate of permissiveness is frightening for persons with disabilities because they worry it would leave them at the mercy of caregivers who think they know best. Read more.
February 16, 2007
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper
October 18, 2002
Action Alert Re: United Church Observer
December 28, 2001
We all LIVE under the same SKY! WE all LIVE under the same LAW!
April 13, 2001
The Bell in Hadamar
March 26, 2001
The Toll Mounts: Another Child Killed
February 2, 2001
Responding to Concerns
January 18, 2001
Supreme Court Decides Against Robert Latimer
November 10, 2000
Provincial Museum of Alberta Promotes Murder of Disabled Children Says ACL Web Site
June 13, 2000
Used Foot Wear
Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide
June 29, 2010
Canadians with Disabilities: We Are Not Dead Yet
On 16 June 2010, two Canadians with disabilities, Rhonda Wiebe, Co-chair of CCD's Ending of Life Ethics Committee, and Jim Derksen, a Committee Member, appeared before the Ad Hoc Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care to present CCD's brief "Canadians with Disabilities: We Are Not Dead Yet". Read more.
June 15, 2010
Canadians with Disabilities--We Are Not Dead Yet*
"I would rather be dead than live with a disability," is a sentiment that people with disabilities, particularly those with severe disabilities, hear from people without disabilities. Such a comment rests on an incorrect assumption that the quality of life is poor when you have a disability. Incorrect assumptions about quality of life have the power to trigger responses that harm people with disabilities. If a simplistic approach is applied when developing end of life policy, the long term result will be systemic discrimination against people with disabilities who are seriously ill or at end of life.
In 1996, CCD passed a resolution stating "…The CCD opposes any government action to decriminalize assisted suicide because of the serious potential for abuse and the negative image of people with disabilities that would be produced if people with disabilities are killed with state sanction…" CCD explains the rationale for its opposition to legalized assisted suicide and shares recommendations focused on staunching the forces that cause Canadians to believe that assisted suicide is a necessary option.
Read more.
December 2, 2009
Letter to the Editor: Re: Locked in Patients Humanity for the Trapped (25 November 2009)
Misdiagnosis of “locked-in” patients as being in a vegetative state is one reason why doctors should not have exclusive control over end of life decision making: Like all human endeavors, the practice of medicine is affected by limitations in knowledge and cultural understanding of human behavior. Read more.
July 24, 2009
An Open Letter to Members of Parliament RE: C384
July 24, 2009
Fast Facts About Bill C-384
What does Bill C-384 do? Bill C-384 would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. Read more.
January 1, 2003
Legalizing Physician-Assisted Death: Can Safeguards Protect the Interests of Vulnerable Persons?
January 1, 2003
Legalizing Physician-Assisted Death: Can Safeguards Protect the Interests of Vulnerable Persons?
February 26, 1999
Genereux Case Factum
December 1, 1997
Latimer Case: Latimer's application to appeal (1997)
March 6, 1997
Excerpt from House of Commons: Bill C-304, an act to amend the Criminal Code (aiding suicide)
January 8, 1997
Disabled fear for lives as mercy killing gains acceptance
January 1, 1993
Rodriguez Case Factum
Jim Derksen views inaccessible York Street Steps in Ottawa. CCD intervened in the Brown Case, which challenged an inadequate accommodation developed for the Steps.
The Latimer Case
The Latimer case directly concerned the rights of persons with disabilities. Mr. Latimer's view was that a parent has the right to kill a child with a disability if that parent decides the child's quality of life no longer warrants its continuation. CCD explained to the court and to the public how that view threatens the lives of people with disabilities and is deeply offensive to fundamental constitutional values. Learn more.