Voices: Assisted Suicide

By None, The Toronto Star, May 17, 2006

In Canada, assisting a suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in jail. We asked you whether you think we should change our laws. Here's what you had to say.

The assisted suicide in question took place in Switzerland and well out side the jurisdiction of the Canadian police and the Ontario College of Psychologists. Therefore I don't think it's anybody's business in this country.
Ken Hall, Havelock

I absolutely think the laws should change. A doctor assisting suicide is not a criminal. The rest of society should be considered criminal for allowing terminal patients to have to endure the kind of agony, both physical and mental, that the rest of us can only imagine. Creating regulations such as mandatory counselling and legally witnessed requests for the procedure would avoid abuse of power. I think its time that we stopped thinking that having a heart beat is enough to consider us alive.
Sarah Hardacre, Cannes

I think that the current punishment is adequate. In certain cases, I could see how a 14-year sentence could be justified. In others cases, the judge should have the power to impose a lighter sentence, as the maximum, not the minimum sentence, is 14 years.
Justin Johnston, Goderich

Assisting someone who is in the very last stages of a painful illness to end their suffering by their own choice with dignity should not be considered a crime in a modern country. It doesn't mean anyone can just dose up the morphine on a family member. But it does mean a living will with explicit instructions should be respected.
Noa Shea, Toronto

For more than 2 years before his death, my brother-in-law, the nicest person I have ever known, was suffering from colon cancer and not even the strongest painkiller could suppress the excruciating pain. If God, according to some, should be the person to solely determine who's to live or die, then God's decision to torture someone like that before taking his life has to be beyond my understanding. Mutually consented assisted suicide executed by doctors under the strictest public scrutiny and district court judges should be legalized on humanitarian grounds.
Will Wong, Markham

I strongly think our laws should be changed. Would any of you really, truly, want to live if you couldn't do the things you enjoy or were stuck in a hospital bed in excruciating pain? It makes no sense at all -- it should be your very own decision. I want to applaud our nurses and doctors for trying to do their best to help us all.
Catherine Cosentino, Uxbridge

Absolutely not. God created us and gave us life. We are not allowed to play God by deciding a person should die because of too much suffering or pain. Jesus suffered and died for us. He could have ended his pain at any time. But He did not do that. He wanted us to know that all life is valuable right from the moment of conception (abortion is definitely wrong) to sometimes suffering, pain, and death.
Anne Marie Czeban, Brampton

We should absolutely change our laws. If someone wants to end their suffering, who are we to insist that we pay thousands of tax dollars in medical expenses to keep them in pain, plus pay an additional $60,000 per year to jail the person who helped them? Not to mention court costs. As for the issue of "who are we to decide?", the only appropriate response is "who are YOU to decide?"
Rowan James, Toronto

People who are suffering from some sort medical problem that is making living unbearable should have the right to die on demand, and without delay. No one should have to live in a nightmare just to satisfy society's taboos about life and death. What's the sense of living if the quality of life is not there?
Jean François Perot, Brampton

There are many ways to put proper safeguards in place to avoid abuse of legalized euthanasia. It is often the same people who go along with a war in which thousands of innocent people get killed who object to euthanasia, even when the person requesting it is in unbearable pain and has no hope to ever get better. It would be interesting to find out where the anti-euthanasia group stands with regards to the death-penalty as well.
Albert Willems, Tillsonburg, Ont.

Like so many things in life, how can anyone really be right on either side of this? I have, for the majority of my life, believed that assisted suicide was wrong. These past few years have changed that. Having a family member suffer in pain, and suffer from no hope. What a life! To feel the pains everyday, to know that they can't get better and worse yet, that it will only become more difficult. If you are able to make the decision to ask for help, God bless, and my prayers are with you.
Nelson Campbell, Toronto

I don't think we should change the law. I believed that God made us and He is the only One who could decide when to end our life.
Normita Bote, Thornhill

I feel that if someone is terminally ill then why shouldn't they be able to end there life? It is their life, not yours. It is all about compassion. The government partakes in suicide by selling cigarettes and alcohol, which kills people everyday. They say it is your choice if you want to drink yourself or smoke yourself to death but yet a doctor can't assist in ending someone's life that has chosen to end it because it is not life for them? Government needs to look at there own morality.
Cheena Foster, Toronto

This is a slippery slope and we risk confusing the right to die with the right to kill. We have already seen this abused time and time again.
Susan MacKay, Wingham

As one who has worked in the fields of social service and mental health for over ten years I feel compelled to say something. It boils my blood when I here of outdated laws maintained for the benefit of a tiny minority of people with religious superstitions. It's the 21st century. Euthanasia should be a basic human right for those with terminal illness, untreatable pain, or those who no longer have a quality of life.
Stephen Laing, Boston, Mass.

This is an incredibly slippery slope. Life is precious. Why don't we put our time and energy into finding ways to help those who suffer? This is a decision for God alone.
Sarah Albano, Fergus, Ont.

How many people with terminal illnesses suffer needlessly because they cannot receive assisted suicide? The laws banning this seem to be relics of a time when religion held too much sway in society.
Peter Sinclair, Toronto

We should not change our laws in regards to assisting with suicide. I believe its too harsh to begin with. When someone decides after thorough deliberation that their going to commit suicide, who are we to say anything about it? As a friend or family, we can only support them with their decision.
Nisha Siva, Scarborough

It's a slippery slope if we legalize suicide. No man or woman has the right to assist in the death of someone else. Even if they are in pain. How will we be able to prove that it wasn't murder in some cases? and where will we draw the line when it comes to "quality of life"? No one should be playing God with people's lives. Wanting to die is one thing. Helping someone do it, is criminal. I wouldn't want to be assisted to die. And I would be afraid that doctors could kill me because I had a poor quality of life.
Erika Klein, Newmarket

This is the twenty-first century. When do we think we can throw off all these religious beliefs and live like modern people?
Will Reid, Toronto

We love our animals enough to put them out of their misery when their time is up. Why not the same for humans? If we are of sane mind and no longer able to live with dignity, it doesn't make sense that it's illegal to check ourselves out.
Else Pedersen, Toronto

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