Prominent Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Collins is raising his influential voice against proposed doctor-assisted death legislation. Collins was born and raised in Guelph.
Collins, the cardinal of the Archdiocese of Toronto, has made an eight-minute video statement in which he warns that the issue is fraught with what amounts to religious discrimination, and could force medical professionals to act against their conscience.
Just over a year ago, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canadian adults in grievous, ceaseless pain have the right to end their life with a doctor’s help. The court gave the Government of Canada one year to draft new rules and laws.
A parliamentary committee was assembled to carry out that arduous task and recently made 21 recommendations on possible provisions in the legislation.
It is those recommendations, Collins said in his video statement, that “should shock us to the core.”
He says in the video statement that the committee’s intent is to give doctor-assisted death a broader scope, and not just to make it available to “a few people with grave physical illness who have lived a long life and are near death.”
Collins warns of the dangers inherent in certain recommendations, including one that would allow minors to be eligible for medical assistance in dying, and another recognizing psychological suffering that is enduring and intolerable as fitting the criterion for medical assistance in dying.
The report of the special joint committee on physician assisted dying also recommends that medical assistance in dying “be available to individuals with terminal and non-terminal grievous and irremediable medical conditions that cause enduring suffering,” according to the wording of the report.
In his statement, Collins called doctor-assisted death a “grim reality hidden behind blandly deceptive terms like medical assistance in dying.”
He said terminally ill and suffering patients are fully justified in refusing medical treatment. “But dying is simply not the same as being killed,” he said, adding it is never justifiable for medical professionals “to kill a patient.” Those who are devoted to healing patients “will soon be asked to do the exact opposite.”
“Killing a patient will no longer be seen as a crime, but will actually be seen as a kind of health care, with legislation to regulate it,” Collins said, calling the legislation “disturbing.”
He says the proposed provision requiring all publicly funded doctors and hospitals to comply with the legislation puts Canada in an infamous position.
“No other country in the world requires such a violation of conscience,” he said. “It is unjust to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician, or in order to qualify for government funding.”
He advocates for greater funding for, and access to palliative care services, saying only 30 per cent of Canadians have such access. “We should be providing palliative care for every Canadian,” Collins said, adding that there also must be more support for those with mental illness, and help for those who are “tempted to suicide.”
Our value as human beings, he concludes in the statement, comes from within, from our inherent dignity as human beings.
“Once we make people’s worthiness to live based on how well they function, our society has crossed the boundary line into dangerous territory in which people are treated as objects that can be discarded as useless,” he said in conclusion.
Health care should protect the vulnerable, and should not require compromising moral convictions, he says. He advised people to write directly to their members of Parliament and voice their concerns about the legislative changes.
Collins has requested that all 225 Catholic churches within the Archdiocese of Toronto share his video statement during Sunday services.
Fr. Dennis Noon, pastor of Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph said the majority of Roman Catholics in this city would agree with Collins' perspective on the issue.
“I think people really need to let their voices be heard on the issue,” Noon said. “Parliament should make this decision, not the Supreme Court. They need to listen to the voice of the people.”
He added that while churches in Toronto and area have been asked to air Collins’ statement, the same has not be requested of churches in the Diocese of Hamilton, to which Guelph’s Roman Catholic churches belong. Noon said it won’t be shown this Sunday at Basilica of Our Lady.
Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield’s office was contacted by email requesting comment on the issue, but a response was not forthcoming on Thursday.
Cardinal Thomas Collins was born in Guelph in 1947 and raised in a home directly behind Basilica of Our Lady. His family attended the church. His father was the circulation manager of the Guelph Mercury. Collins was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2012.