TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2014
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SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS ASSISTED SUICIDE
Debating the right to die MP Lunney, Parksville man have differing views on the subject CANDACE WU news@pqbnews.com
The decision is expected to take months, but the outcome could change the course of Canadian history. The Supreme Court of Canada is currently debating medicallyassisted death in a case that would make the practise legal on a federal level, altering the way Canadians live and die. On Oct. 15, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and two British Columbian families took to the highest court to make their landmark death-with-dignity case. According to a BCCLA news release, the association and the families are arguing that the current legislation banning assisted suicide violates the rights of terminally ill Canadians who wish to die on their own terms, and those laws are unfair to terminally ill people who do not have the means to take their own I think that creating lives. mechanisms to kill people, On the other hand, the federal rather than sustaining life, government argues that the only way is tragedy in itself to protect vulnerable Canadians is by JAMES LUNNEY enforcing a total ban on medically assisted suicide. Nanaimo-Alberni Member of Parliament James Lunney echoed his government’s sentiments. “Humans have dignity because they are human and respect for life requires we don’t intentionally kill another human being,” Lunney, a Conservative MP, told The NEWS from Ottawa earlier this month, stating he supports the current legislation banning assisted suicide. “We’ll all die some day and as a health care practitioner my vision is to see people live well until they die,” he said, adding he doesn’t “subscribe to the hopeless view.” Lunney said we need to focus on living not on dying. “I think that (for physicians to be focussed on) creating mechanisms to kill people, rather than sustaining life, is tragedy in itself … I won’t do anything to contribute to that as long as this debate goes on.” But 86-year-old Parksville resident Bill Martin takes issue with Lunney’s stance. See CURRENT LAWS ‘ARCHAIC’, page A4
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MUSIC FOR MADNESS: Cilla Lewenhaupt of the Oceanside Jammers plays a tune at Dolly’s Home Hardware during Moonlight Madness on Thursday in Qualicum Beach. The group wandered into businesses around downtown playing traditional celtic music and spreading good cheer. For more photos from the event, visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PQBNews.
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