Quebec College of Physicians has told Canadian politicians that doctors should be allowed to euthanise children. “No one is safe”, says SPUC.
The Collège des médecins du Québec, addressing parliamentarians at a Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying at the House of Commons of Canada, has stated that euthanasia should be made available for infants born with what it referred to as “severe malformations” and “grave and severe symptoms” in which the “prospect of survival is null, so to speak”.
The Quebec College of Physicians had previously recommended euthanasia as “appropriate care” for teenage children “who suffer unnecessarily”.
Alex Schadenberg, speaking as executive director of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, remarked that “the concept of euthanizing infants, also known as infanticide, is very different than killing competent adults by euthanasia… Infants are unable to ask to be killed and they are unable to consent to their death.”
He added that “if Canada approves euthanasia of infants, as has been done in the Netherlands through the Groningen Protocol, that will then open the door to euthanasia of other people who are not able to ask to be killed or consent to their death, such as people with dementia”.
The Groningen Protocol states that euthanasia should be considered as a care option for children aged 14-18 if parental consent is granted, a practice that the Quebec College of Physicians has said is “an avenue worth exploring” in Canada.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “We can see the shocking direction of travel in Canada as physicians now push infanticide as ‘appropriate care’ – an appalling and wholly contradictory abuse of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.
“Here is a clear example of the ‘slippery slope’. Since assisted suicide was introduced in Canada, it has killed 31,664 people (as of 31 December 2021) and is soon to be expanded to the mentally ill. Are children next?
“Once a society underwrites the killing of children, no one is safe. Children are the future, a future that some physicians are now determined to steal away.”
Similar stories
Holland considers allowing euthanasia for children aged 1 to 12
Desperate Canadian quadriplegic applies for assisted suicide
Belgium violated human rights in “disturbing” euthanasia case