Disabled would face discrimination

COLF sees threat to handicapped if euthanasia permitted

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

The Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) has warned members of Parliament and senators that the passage of assisted suicide and euthanasia Bill C-407 would "establish blatant discrimination against those with less autonomy and those at the end of their lives."

"The lives of some Canadians would have more value than the lives of others," said a strongly worded letter sent Oct. 25 from COLF President Ronald Fabbro, bishop of London, Ont.

"Yet the life of each Canadian possesses the same intrinsic and inviolable worth until its natural end."

Instead, Fabbro urged politicians to "eliminate suffering but not the patient, the pain and not the dying person."

Authorizing the "murder of some of its citizens" is a practice "unworthy of a civilized nation," he said.

"Those Canadian citizens who suffer from illnesses, whether they are young or elderly, do not need a law which makes it possible for others to kill them or to help them to commit suicide."

Fabbro said the attempt to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide "clearly contradicts fundamental Canadian values, and constitutes a real threat to the most vulnerable members of our society."

"The proper response to the cry of the suffering is an attentive companionship, full of human warmth and love," he wrote.

A new COLF pamphlet entitled: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Urgent Questions! says vulnerable people would be at the mercy of others who might pressure them to commit suicide, that patient/doctor trust would be undermined, palliative care would be "marginalized" and respect for human life would be diminished.

The pamphlet can be downloaded at www.cccb.ca or by phone at 613 241-9461.

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