On Oct 7th, Doctor Louis Roy from the Quebec College of Physicians addressed the Canadian House of Commons’ Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying.
He advocated for medical assistance in dying, euthanasia and assisted suicide, for infants born with “severe malformations” and “grave and severe symptoms” where their “prospect of survival is null, so to speak.”
The Quebec College of Physicians, which licenses doctors and regulates medicine at the provincial level, has previously advocated for medical assistance in dying for teenage minors as well as infants.
“For these little human beings who suffer unnecessarily, medical assistance in dying framed by a strict protocol can be appropriate care.”
Last December, they said it should be considered when one has “extreme suffering that cannot be soothed, coupled with a very dark prognosis” and is facing “appalling living conditions in cases of severe malformations or severe multi-symptomatic syndromes, annihilating any prospect of relief or survival.”
Bishops in Canada have strongly opposed euthanasia and assisted suicide in the past.
“Our position remains unequivocal. Euthanasia and assisted suicide constitute the deliberate killing of human life in violation of God’s Commandments; they erode our shared dignity by failing to see, to accept, and accompany those suffering and dying.”
Pope Francis has made the value of life a focus of his papacy, too.
He has condemned euthanasia not as freedom, but as reducing the person to a “thing.”
In 2017, he even talked an acid attack victim out of suicide.
🙏 Pray that the dignity of all is respected!
