“This proposed law, were it to be adopted, would legalize euthanasia under the name medical aid in dying,” says a Jan. 23 statement from the Assembly of the Catholic Bishops of Quebec. “In Québec, the act of causing death would be considered a form of ‘care’ that could be offered and ‘administered’ to the terminally ill.”
Bill-52 will come to a final vote after the Quebec National Assembly resumes sitting Feb. 11.
“To cause death to a sick person is not to care for him,” the bishops say. “A lethal injection is not a treatment. Euthanasia is not a form of care.
“We already have the right to refuse overtreatment. We already have the right not to have our lives artificially prolonged by being plugged in to all sorts of equipment. These are givens: we do not need a new law to guarantee them.
“What Bill-52 is all about is allowing physicians directly to cause death,” they say. “This goes against the most basic human values and contradicts the very purpose of medicine. Bringing about a patient’s death is not a medical act.”
Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine offered an independent reflection for priests and faithful asking them to consider what might have happened if Jesus Christ had been offered poison in the Garden of Gethsemane so He could avoid His passion and agony of death on the Cross. Lépine stressed Jesus laid down His life, He offered as a gift, it is not taken from Him.
His death on the cross is “more important than all the words He said before, than all the miracles He has done, because He has given Himself to the end, because He has loved to the extreme of love,” the archbishop said.
Christians cannot do otherwise than follow Christ crucified, he said.
“Especially since the crucified is risen, thereby demonstrating that death is not the last word of life, death is not the last word of love, opening a way of hope.”
Every human heart needs the light of Christ, Lepine said. While human beings seek a path through anguish and death, “we are called to testify to the light of life.”
“It is a light we are called to accept but also convey, because there is a light that comes from the cross and has the power to touch the hearts of all . . . because Jesus Christ gave His life for all,” Lépine said.
“Contemplate Christ crucified,” the archbishop said, noting “we cannot address the issues of life and death, and threats against life without recognizing we need Him and His cross.”
Lépine pointed out that not only can we bring something to the dying, with courage and generosity in the face of great difficulty, the dying can bring something to us. Accompanying the dying is supporting the living, those who are living near the end of their lives, he said.
“When it comes to directly causing the death of someone, to do something with the intent to kill, it is not to accompany the process of living, we are in the process of removing the living,” he said.
The archbishop admitted there are “no easy answers” to the difficult questions of pain and suffering.
God defends life by “giving His life for us in Jesus Christ,” and that is the example that we must follow, by making our life a gift, despite our frailties, weaknesses and sin, as we prepare to make a gift of our death, he said. Death as a passage to eternal life is prepared by our making our life a gift, in a journey of prayer and giving to others, opening a path to God.
Meanwhile, opponents are stepping up efforts to combat the bill. Nicolas Steenhout of Living With Dignity said his group continues to raise awareness surrounding the ills of Bill-52.
“We’re continuing the awareness battle and trying to get people to realize there’s a lot of risk with this law,” Steenhout said. “Obviously at this point, getting public opinion changed is not as important as getting elected officials to change their minds. The public doesn’t have much of a say any more unless we rise up and say, ‘You must change this law.’ ”