EUTANASIA

In this paper I want to focus on the controversial and difficult issue of assisted suicide or euthanasia. First some ground clearing and preparation: "euthanasia" means "a gentle and easy death" and has come to mean "the good death of another" or "mercy killing." It is controversial because it brings into focus and conflict some very powerful and competing values. Certainly one of society'straditional attitudes, expressed morally, legally, philosophically, and religiously is that human life merits special protection. In fact, some claim that human life is an absolute value. For them the taking of human life then becomes a wrong even in the case of voluntary euthanasia. And for some this perceived moral wrong should be prohibited by the full force of the law. The clash here is betweenprotection of human life and the right to decisional autonomy, and as well raises the question of the extent to which the criminal law should be used to enforce particular moral positions. And the conflict is one of absolutism versus consequentialism. Are some acts absolutely morally prohibited,or do we assess the goodness or badness of acts based upon their consequences? started to write "the SueRodriguez case has reminded us all...." and then I realized how wrong that is. It is not the Sue Rodriguez "case"- it is Sue Rodriguez who has reminded us all of our own mortality and our need to think carefully about the kind of society we want to live and to die in. I knew Sue Rodriguez only through the media, heard her speak so eloquently and painfully in support of what she believed in, watchedas her strength was sapped by the devastating disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and was moved by her clear thought and her bravery as a person facing death. Here was a woman who acted on her beliefs with courage and tenacity and whose grace has enriched us all. (To learn more about Sue go to http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1135/life_society/sue_rodriguez/)Advances in medical science havealso had a stunning effect on social policy. Medical advances and technology have made it possible, for example, for us to cure pneumonia in a person suffering from terminal cancer by administering antibiotics; before this discovery that patient would have died of pneumonia. Cardiac arrest and kidney failure are no longer fatal with the appropriate technological intervention. AIDS has intensifiedthe debate over assisted suicide. Palliative care has improved, and it is rare now to find a physician who is worried about giving too much of a painkilling narcotic to a suffering patient on the grounds that it may be habit forming. In the midst of all these changes in the art of medicine and care-giving there remains the moral question of, not what can be done, but what should be done?
Here isthe question: is it possible for us as a society to recognize and assert the fundamental importance of life while at the same time recognizing and asserting the right of a terminally ill patient to die with dignity?
A more basic problem however has to do with the use of criminal law to enforce moral positions held by some members of society. The challenge for us in Canada today is to allow forsometimes competing and strongly held moral principles in the euthanasia debate. On the one hand we should value autonomy and on the other we should value life. The Law Reform Commission Working paper of 1982 puts it this way: (p.37): "Law must also recognize, as it now does implicitly, the principle of personal autonomy and self-determination, the right of every human being to have his [her]wishes respected in decisions involving his [her] own body. It is essential to recognize that every human being is, in principle, master of his [her] own destiny. He [She] may, of course, for moral or religious reasons, impose restrictions or limits on his [her] own right of self-determination. However, these limits must not be imposed on him [her] by the law except in cases where the exercise of...