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The decision is stayed for 30 days in order to allow the woman’s father to appeal.
A judge in Canada has ruled that a woman with autism can be granted her request to die by assisted suicide, overruling efforts by the woman’s father to halt the deadly procedure.
In a decision this week, Justice Colin Feasby of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta said the 27-year-old woman, identified in documents as “MV,” would be allowed to access the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) even as her father argued that she was “vulnerable” and “not competent to make the decision to take her own life.” Feasby’s decision set aside an earlier injunction against the woman’s request for assisted suicide.
Canadian law stipulates that anyone seeking assisted suicide be suffering from “a serious illness, disease, or disability,” be experiencing “unbearable physical or mental suffering,” and be unable to reverse either the disease or the attendant suffering.
MV’s father argued that his daughter “is generally healthy” and that “her physical symptoms, to the extent that she has any, result from undiagnosed psychological conditions.”
Feasby himself noted that the woman “has not provided any evidence” to contest those assertions, “nor has she identified her medical condition or provided information concerning her symptoms and how they cause her to suffer.”
In his decision, the judge frankly admitted to MV: “I do not know you and I do not know why you seek MAID.” Her reasons for doing so, he wrote, “remain your own because I have respected your autonomy and your privacy.”
While Feasby acknowledged that the parents of the woman will suffer “substantial” harm if she kills herself, the harm she herself will experience “goes to the core of her being,” he argued.
“An injunction would deny MV the right to choose between living or dying with dignity,” he claimed.
“Further, an injunction would put MV in a position where she would be forced to choose between living a life she has decided is intolerable and ending her life without medical assistance,” the judge claimed. “This is a terrible choice that should not be forced on MV as attempting to end her life without medical assistance would put her at increased risk of pain, suffering, and lasting injury.”
Though the ruling set aside the earlier injunction, Feasby said the decision would be stayed for 30 days in order to allow the father to appeal.
The judge pointed out that “nothing that I have written should be taken to minimize or diminish [the father’s] potential loss.”
The woman’s father “can perhaps take some solace in the fact that he did his best to persuade [her] of the value of her life and her parents’ commitment to loving and supporting her,” he wrote.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since 2016. The Canadian government earlier this year postponed plans to expand its assisted suicide program to include those suffering from mental illness after a parliamentary report said the country’s health system is “not ready.”
The Canadian government’s website says that “eligibility for MAID for persons suffering solely from a mental illness has been delayed” until March 2027.
The Canadian pro-life movement rarely gets good news. But this week it got something to give a glimmer of hope that the slippery slope of legalized euthanasia may be finally arrested.
In all, 2023 saw a nearly 30% increase in assisted-suicide prescriptions and a 20% rise in deaths.
The Diocese of Manchester, which takes up the entire state, has rallied opposition to the bill.
The committee’s report, released on March 20, recommended the introduction of laws permitting assisted suicide for persons diagnosed with terminal diseases.
Supporters of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School argue that refusing to allow the school to operate as a charter school is religious discrimination.
Michigan will join the large majority of states in the country that permit paid surrogacy. The only remaining states to not permit paid surrogacy are Nebraska and Louisiana.
The Kamloops facility has continued to be a source of controversy and dispute since the announcement of the discovery several years ago.
The new document will be discussed during a press conference April 8 from Rome.
As we celebrate our Risen Lord, we welcome new Catholics into the fold.
Will it spur a Catholic renaissance in music?
“The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, ‘is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.’” (CCC 882)
‘Unless there is a Good Friday in our lives, there will never be an Easter Sunday.’
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