Volume XXXIV No. 1 January 2016 Montreal, QC Canada www.filipinostar.org Medical group offers recommendations to governments for aBsy: Ssheryil sUbetlackeer Tdhe Candadiayn iissnue agnd we lneaed towensurs e that we Press, Published on Thu Jan 21 2016 are prepared,” said CMA president Dr. The Canadian Medical Cindy Forbes. “The CMA’s principles- Association released a catalogue of based approach will help provinces recommendations Thursday aimed at and the federal government respond.” helping Ottawa and the provinces draft The list of recommendations crafted by legislation governing physician- the 80,000-member doctors assisted dying. organization, after consultation with Key issues addressed in the physicians, members of the public and document include assessing patient other medical groups, is part advice, eligibility for medically aided death, part wish list. physicians’ responsibilities in providing One of the key the service, and how to balance recommendations is that legislators doctors’ freedom of conscience with should respect physicians’ values, timely access to life-ending noting that no doctor “should be procedures. compelled to provide assistance in Last February, the Supreme dying.” Court of Canada overturned the ban on Nor should any physician, who assisted suicide and euthanasia, giving refuses on moral or religious grounds Ottawa a year to craft legislation before to help a patient end their life, be patients with a grievous and forced to refer the person to a irremediable medical condition could colleague who’s willing to provide the seek help to end their lives. Last week, procedure — though “this must not the court granted a four-month result in undue delay for the patient extension on that deadline, meaning seeking to access these services,” the the federal government must come up document states. with new regulations by early June. “What we’re talking about is a By overturning the long- very small group of physicians who standing law prohibiting aid in dying, would find it equally as morally the high court has given doctors the abhorrent to provide the service as it task of helping eligible patients die, would be to directly refer to someone either with a prescription for lethal who would provide the service,” drugs (assisted suicide) or by Forbes said Thursday from Vancouver. administering injections of the life- That stance was condemned by Dying ending medications (euthanasia). With Dignity Canada, an organization MPs have voted against the Assisted Dying Bill despite overwhelming public support “The clock is ticking on this See Page 4 Dying Laws Motion calls for Montreal parties to recruit more minority candidates Montreal, January 18, 2016 using the most generous metric Satistics Canada indicates that minorities particularly persons of about 30% of the Montreal population colour are virtually invisible in is composed of visible minorities. municipal Councils in the agglo- Yet only 6 of 208 municipal meration of Montreal. elected officials on the island of In January 2013 Frantz Montreal are from visible minorities. Benjamin and Marvin Rotrand raised Two are members of Montreal City this issue at Montreal Council with a Council (Frantz Benjamin and Alan De motion urging the political parties to Sousa), two are members of various address the issue. Rotrand would like Montreal Borough Councils (Monica to think that the record number of Rincourt and Nathalie Pierre-Antoine) visible minority candidates in the 2013 while two are members of suburban municipal election in Montreal was at town councils (Errol Johnson in least partially spurred by this motion Sitting behind the table were people who want Montreal to pass a motion obliging its Dollard des Ormeaux and Minh Diem Li but the result was much the same as municipal political parties to start recruiting qualified VM candidates. The group Thi in Town of Mount Royal). earlier election cycles - visible included: Benoit Dorais (mayor of the Southwest & leader of Coalition Montréal); This number might be minorities remain severely Érika Duchesne (Rosemont councillor); Peter Francis (of the Black Coalition); Erik stretched somewhat by including underrepresented. Hamon (2013 candidate in Darlington); Khokon Maniruzzaman (Snowdon school several persons who hail from religious commissioner); Marvin Rotrand (Snowdon councillor); and Steve Shanahan (Peter- See Page 4 Motion to recruit minorities but the reality is that even McGill councillor).(Montreal Times) January 2016 2 The North American Filipino Star EDCA: A new strategic partnership January 18, 2016 | Featured, Opinion, PerryScope By Perry Diaz OPINION ED. Twenty-four years after the Philippine Supreme Court’s ruling, every time The Guardian view on assisted Senate rejected the extension of the American warships docked at the dying: a clash of moral visions American bases, the Philippine Subic port (formerly Subic Naval Assisted dying forces us to ask what life is for and why it’s Supreme Court upheld the Base), they were met by protesting valuable constitutionality of the Enhanced leftist groups displaying anti-American signs. This time around, when the USS The central question about Rob according to the autonomists. Marris’s bill to allow assisted dying is whether it represents the beginning of But of course the right to die, in this a very slippery slope. By itself, the bill sense, already exists. Suicide is legal, is modest and careful. It excludes all as it should be, and is no longer but the terminally ill, and people with condemned even as a very grave sin. It dementia, even if they are terminally ill; is also legal for any adult to refuse it requires medical and legal approval particular treatments, as it should be. for every case and it does not require These rights are proper and doctors to perform an act of deliberate undisputed. The line that is being killing by administering the fatal dose. crossed by the proponents of A very similar law in Oregon has been autonomy is that they claim the right to taken up by only 0.3% of those eligible ask other people to help us kill in the last 18 years. So it’s clear that by ourselves, and will in due course claim itself this bill would not allow the kind of the right to compel them to do so. For brutal large-scale elimination of the if I have the right to demand a certain unwanted and unhappy that course of treatment, even if it is fatal, opponents fear. It appears to have then the refusal to grant this right must US-Philippines bilateral meeting in Washington DC on January 12, 2016, the day the enough crampons to keep from sliding come to seem immoral, and may come Philippine Supreme Court ruled the EDCA constitutional. down towards the precipice of large- to be seen as something that should Defense Cooperation Agreement Topeka, a nuclear attack submarine, scale, state-sanctioned euthanasia. be illegal as well. (EDCA). EDCA is an “executive docked at Subic a few hours before the agreement” between the U.S. and the high court decision was announced, it At the same time, this wealth of That is where the slope becomes Philippines that would allow the was welcomed by a marching band safeguards must disappoint many impossibly slippery. Suicide is only American military to once again set composed of local students. supporters of assisted dying. This bill apparently a solitary act. In reality, foot on Philippine soil. It didn’t take would not have eased the plight of other people are always involved both long for the Philippines to act; she Changing times many high-profile cases. Tony in its causes and its consequences. immediately offered eight strategic Nicklinson, for example, had a There are cases where people are locations throughout the country The "Magnificent 12" of the Philippine condition that was dreadful but not driven to suicide by others. Even an where the U.S. could position Senate in 1991. terminal. He would not have benefited. apparently neutral attitude by the rest equipment and personnel on a The most common fear of those of society to the act can push unhappy rotational basis. Indeed, times have changed since the people who say they would rather not people over the edge, which is why Philippine Senate, by a narrow 12-11 be kept alive into extreme old age is newspapers don’t publish details and A local marching band welcomes the vote, decided not to renew the U.S. dementia. They could not choose to often avoid the word itself when arrival of sailors aboard the USS bases agreement in 1991. A year later, die under this measure. Their relatives reporting death. Topeka (SSN-754), a Los Angeles- after then President Cory Aquino’s must watch them dwindle with all the class submarine, as it prepares to be administration tried vainly to work out emotional and indeed financial To accept the argument from docked at the Alava pier off Subic port. an extension, the U.S. flag was lowered anguish this will entail. autonomy unexamined would vastly in Subic for the last time. Since then, increase the social acceptability of It’s interesting to note that prior to the leftist and nationalist groups have It is hard to believe that the Marris bill, suicide, and thereby increase its if passed, will satisfy those who argue prevalence. It would also implicate for assisted dying on the grounds of medical professionals in the business personal autonomy. The libertarians of of killing. An absolute right to die – like the Economist have already made it so many of the rights claimed by clear that the bill, and the Oregon libertarians – would strengthen the legislation on which it is modelled, position of those strong enough to don’t go nearly far enough. In their assert themselves and make life worse view the “right to die” should extend to for the relatively weak and powerless.