General News
Fighting for our lives - Canada's chill wind of euthanasia
WinnipegCurrently, in Canada, as elsewhere around the globe, poverty and disability are largely synonymous; poverty can lead to disability and disability can lead to poverty. A disproportionate number of Canadaโs disabled people live in poverty. Poverty is an even greater problem for disabled Aboriginals. Across the country, there is no coordinated policy response in place to address the problem of poverty. Instead, those who require income assistance and services rely on a patchwork of local/provincial/territorial and federal programs that overlap, grab back, and fail to provide adequate income and the basic supports required to remove barriers associated with disability. Approximately a half million disabled Canadians rely upon provincial welfare or upon welfare-like programs.
These economic disadvantages are exacerbated by numerous social and structural barriers and discriminatory attitudes, which contribute to both a lack of access to the built environment and programs and services that do not truly meet our needs.
This social structure leads to a situation where: over two million Canadian adults with disabilities lack one or more of the educational, workplace aids, home modifications or other supports they need to participate fully in society; over 56 per cent of working-age adults are currently unemployed or out of the labour market. For disabled women the rate is almost 60 per cent.
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people with learning difficulties remain in institutions, including group homes and congregate care facilities.
In Canadaโs federal state, constitutional responsibility for disability supports and services are shared across 13 provincial/territorial jurisdictions and the federal government.
Federal, provincial and territorial human rights laws prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Between 2002 and 2006, at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, disability was the highest ground of complaint, followed by complaints on the ground of sex discrimination.
In 2005, Canadian federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Social Services identified disability issues as a major concern. They stated: โThe focus for achieving [the full inclusion of Canadians with disabilities] will be joint work with emphasis on improving access to and funding for disability supports and services and for income support for persons with disabilities, at the same time working to build public awareness and stakeholder and government support to address the challenges facing people with disabilities.โ While a consensus exists that the issue of poverty and disability must be addressed, to date advancements have been incremental and new barriers to the equality of persons with disabilities continue to emerge. The disabled community has been demanding a more strategic and comprehensive response from government on disability issues.
The negative cultural attitudes that keep people with disabilities poor and excluded in their communities also make people with disabilities vulnerable to euthanasia, an issue which has been resurfacing in various forms in Canada since the 1990s. People often say to a disabled person, โI canโt imagine how you cope.โ This inability to imagine what the disability experience is all about is translated into a kind of collective mythology that a disability equals a tragic life, marked by deprivation and suffering. Some people wrongly assume that people with disabilities are suffering and want to be relieved of their suffering. Disabled people, just like non-disabled people, report satisfaction with their lives. Just as the Council for Canadians with Disabilities has been campaigning for poverty eradication, it has also been working to counter the efforts of pro-euthanasia advocates. The current campaign involves Bill C-384, an Act to Amend the Criminal Code, sponsored by Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde.
Bill C-384 would legalize euthanasia by amending section 222 of the Criminal Code and it would legalise assisted suicide by amending section 241 of the Criminal Code. In summary, if Bill C-384 were passed, it would be permissible for medical practitioners to kill in instances where an apparently lucid person at least 18 years of age, experiencing physical or mental pain without prospect of relief or terminal illness, makes two written requests ten days apart. Additionally, the bill would allow Canadians to designate someone to act on their behalf if they were not lucid.
โCalled the โRight to Die with Dignityโ Act, this bill threatens the lives of disabled Canadians. Its selling points are the notions of โdignityโ and โsufferingโ. However, the bill never explains what these terms mean. How do we measure dignity? What is suffering?โ states Rhonda Wiebe, Co-chair of CCDโs Ending of Life Ethics Committee. These terms are based more on social values than scientific ones, but this bill proposes that a โmedicalโ and โlegalโ solution be the remedy for people whose lives are not โdignifiedโ or who โsufferโ.
โLiving without dignity and suffering are common misperceptions that able-bodied Canadians have about the lives of their fellow citizens with disabilities. Bill C-384 does nothing to protect those who find themselves socially devalued in these ways,โ states Dean Richert, Co-Chair of CCDโs Ending of Life Ethics Committee.
Social support and meaningful involvement in the community are more important for our well-being than the severity of our impairments or conditions. Assisted suicide is not a free choice as long as people with disabilities are denied adequate healthcare, affordable personal assistance in their communities, and equal access to social structures and systems. These are all the things that CCD, and other organisations in the Canadian disability community, are working for through the National Action PlanโFrom Vision to Action.
Source: Disability Now eNewsletter October 2009
Additional Information
Country: Canada
Website: http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/world-view/fighting-for-our-lives-canadas-chill-wind-of-euthanasia
Email: N/A
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Source: Email from: Frank Mulcahy
When: 05/10/2009
