By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
As I have written before, the euthanasia lobby will promote “safeguards”–or “limits”–to assisted dying laws to sell its legalization to the public. However, once they succeed, the death lobby will soon promote the expansion of the law.
For instance, the first legal challenge to Canada’s euthanasia law was launched only 10 days after parliament passed Bill C-14 in 2016. Canada’s parliament introduced Bill C-7, to expand Canada’s euthanasia law, on February 24, 2020, less than four years after legalizing euthanasia and without carrying out the required review of the euthanasia law. C-7 is now law.
YES, Canada expanded its euthanasia law without first completing a review of the law that the legislation required.
Australian states are also being pressured to expand their euthanasia laws, even though they only recently legalized medical killing.
HOPE Australia reported that there is pressure to expand the Western Australian euthanasia law even before it has been implemented and an article published in The Age on May 3 reports that a bill will be debated in Victoria, Australia to expand its euthanasia law, a law that has only been in place since 2019.
California is debating Bill SB 380 to expand its assisted suicide law and Washington State debated a bill to expand its assisted suicide law that thankfully failed to pass.
Jurisdictions that are considering the legalization of euthanasia need to be aware that the assisted death lobby views these “safeguards” as creating a pathway to legalization. After legalizing, they complain that the very same “safeguards” are barriers to access.
Negotiating the “safeguards” will not lead to a safer law. Rather, it only provides the death lobby with an ability to sell the law to the general public under a false flag.
Inevitably, once assisted suicide is legalized, the death lobby will propose expansion.
Editor’s note. This appeared on Mr. Schadenberg’s blog and is reposted with permission.