The Supreme Court of British Columbia’s decision to strike down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide was reversed by the BC Court of Appeal yesterday.
The decision represents a disappointing delay for advocates of compassionate deaths in Canada, which have been fighting for a reversal to the ban for decades.
I recently was trained as an ambassador for Dying With Dignity Canada, so I’m excited to hear this from former Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
We are campaigning for assisted dying in circumstances where a person is terminally ill and mentally sound, able to make their own choices. Where is the ethical problem in a situation like that?
Patrick Stewart goes even further and pins the opposition squarely on intolerant religious clerics who are trying to shove their agenda on everyone else:
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the actor criticised the “selfish” religious opposition to reform and disclosed how he was moved to campaign for a change in the law by the suicide of a friend’s wife.
…
However, the actor’s own opinion of the religious opposition is equally strong.
“I find it selfish,” he said. “We have freedom of religion in this country, but with that does not go the opportunity, because you are a person of faith, to impose your beliefs on others who do not share them.”
The “vocal minority” of largely “faith-based voices” must not be allowed to hold sway over the debate, he said.
Stewart decided to campaign publicly following a close friend of his coming face-to-face with our undignified laws. He sums up the need for reform elegantly:
“The law denied the two of them the opportunity to say goodbye in a loving and peaceful way. And that is very sad.”
Thank-you Jean-Luc.