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Canada������Ƶapp Catholic bishops, in a submission to the federal committee exploring the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), reiterated their opposition to assisted suicide and called for more safeguards for the vulnerable.

The B.C. chapters of Dying With Dignity Canada have launched a public-relations campaign aimed at forcing Catholic and other faith-based health-care facilities to allow patients to undergo “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) without being transferred to a secular facility.

Seven years after Parliament legalized voluntary euthanasia in Canada, doctors and professors of medicine are still at odds over the definition of palliative care, funding for end-of-life care and the threat Medical Aid in Dying poses to the poor, vulnerable and isolated.

Since the legalization of euthanasia in Canada in 2016, I’ve had two people tell me of their parent who would be dying in this way. These were acquaintances who did not know me well, not even my last name, and yet they shared this deeply personal information. Yet in my entire life, I’ve never had even one woman mention in passing that she had an abortion. I’ve never had anyone casually tell me they accompanied someone to an abortion.

Cardinal Thomas Collins has added his applause for a federal bill protecting conscience rights of health-care professionals who refuse participation in medically assisted suicide.

Bill C-7, which will expand access to a medically-assisted death, is the law of the land and no doctor or nurse practitioner can be charged under the criminal code for ending the life of a patient who asked for the procedure so long as the right forms were filled out.

OTTAWA -- A surge in assisted death requests in Nova Scotia has seen the province put referrals on hold until the backlog can be cleared.

As far as legislation goes, as far as the political parties are concerned, and in the eyes of the medical establishment, the debate over MAiD and euthanasia is over. The Supreme Court of Canada, Parliament and the Canadian Medical Association have pronounced their final words on the subject.

I now know of two people who ended their lives through euthanasia. They died in August and September.

OTTAWA -- The “slippery slope” critics of the medical assistance in dying (MAiD) system have been warning about may be ready to tilt once more as a Quebec mother seeks an assisted death for her four-year-old child.

Nearly 7,600 Canadians chose to die via MAiD (medical assistance in dying) in 2020, an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year, the latest numbers released by Health Canada show.

“As Minister of Health, I am proud to present Health Canada������Ƶapp Second Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying (2020).”

Canada has been riding the fast track on assisted suicide for almost five years, yet it still hasn’t put in place effective protection for health care providers who do not want to play any part in ending a life this way. It������Ƶapp called conscience rights and it is one of the freedoms specifically mentioned in Canada������Ƶapp Charter.

Amid the deep shadows of ever-expanding MAiD and examples of hospice care being brutally extinguished, a gesture of transformation by the Archdiocese of Montreal lights a candle in the dark.

Canada������Ƶapp bishops are calling on Catholics to continue to push back against the “culture of death” even as efforts to block the expansion of euthanasia in Canada have so far failed.