“Canada’s ‘right-to-die’ lobby is currently attempting to bypass the political process by going to the courts,” said Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) director Michele Boulva in a letter to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) executive director Alex Schadenberg dated Nov. 9.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and EPC-B.C. have intervener status in the case and will argue against decriminalizing assisted suicide. Boulva wrote that COLF “fully supports” their intervention and “invites all Canadians concerned about the perils of euthanasia to sign the EPC’s petition urging the Attorney General to take whatever measures he can to prevent euthanasia and assisted suicide from becoming legal in our great country.”

“Concerns about safety, security and equality of people with disabilities and seniors will be central to the arguments advanced by EPC before the court, as will concerns about medical ethics and the proposed change in the doctor-patient relationship,” said EPC legal counsel Hugh Scher in a statement.

“I see elder abuse in my practice, often perpetrated by family members and caregivers,” said EPC-BC chair Dr. Will Johnston, a family doctor, in a statement. “A desire for money or an inheritance is typical.

“Under current law, abusers take their victims to the bank and to the lawyer for a new will. With legal assisted suicide, the next stop would be the doctor’s office for a lethal prescription. How are we going to detect victimization when we can’t do it now?”

Schadenberg said he finds it “very scary” that pro-euthanasia and assisted suicide advocates are pressing the courts to treat these as medical issues, undermining the Criminal Code protections for vulnerable disabled people, those seriously ill, those who are deeply depressed and frail elderly people.

A case has also been filed in Trois Rivières, Que., by Ginette Leblanc who has ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), the same disease that prompted Sue Rodriguez to take her battle for a legal assisted suicide to the Supreme Court of Canada 20 years ago. After losing the case, Rodriguez found someone to help her end her life. No one has ever been charged in her death.

Schadenberg said the Leblanc case could go ahead in December, but the Leblanc and Carter cases may join if one of them goes to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The EPC warns the Carter case would not only legalize assisted suicide, but also euthanasia, while the LeBlanc case, which is more similar to Rodriguez, would only affect the law against assisted suicide.