{"id":4749,"date":"2020-03-06T19:03:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T19:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2020-03-06T19:03:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T19:03:40","slug":"webcast-archive-new-u-n-report-restates-the-special-rapporteurs-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/03\/webcast-archive-new-u-n-report-restates-the-special-rapporteurs-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcast archive: New U.N. report restates the Special Rapporteur\u2019s position"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1180\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o1ZxYbYsF2M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In this episode of\u00a0<em>Euthanasia &amp; Disability<\/em>, Amy Hasbrouck, Taylor Hyatt and Christian Debray discuss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new U.N. report restates the Special Rapporteur\u2019s position on AS &amp; E<\/li>\n<li>A four month extension is granted to pass new MAID law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please note that this text is only a script and that our webcast contains additional commentary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A NEW U.N. REPORT RESTATES THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR\u2019S POSITION ON AS &amp; E<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li>We learned on March 3 of a new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/ga\/search\/view_doc.asp?symbol=A\/HRC\/43\/41&amp;Lang=E\">report<\/a>\u00a0from the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of persons with Disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar.\u00a0 It studies the impact of ableism in medical and scientific practice, including assisted suicide and euthanasia (AS &amp; E).<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25632&amp;LangID=E&amp;fbclid=IwAR06mZz0QVm6RuaFFL24TCDP578_dnC5TPAy16kSGhMqurN0Ny4j4-egUEg\">press release<\/a>\u00a0announcing the report, entitled \u201cNew eugenics: UN disability expert warns against \u2018ableism\u2019 in medical practice,\u201d signaled the serious concerns expressed by Ms. Devandas over the bioethics issues covered in the 18-page report.\u00a0 This is the first statement on bioethics by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the first application of principles contained in the 2005 UNESCO\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/portal.unesco.org\/en\/ev.php-URL_ID=31058&amp;URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&amp;URL_SECTION=201.html\">Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights<\/a>\u00a0to people with disabilities.<\/li>\n<li>Paragraph 35 of the report concerns withholding and withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment on the basis of disability.\u00a0 The text says \u201cit has been reported that physicians may exert pressure\u201d on patients \u201cbased on the belief that further treatment would be futile, non-beneficial or potentially inappropriate, particularly for patients with severe impairments.\u201d Ms. Devandas said a physician assessment may be \u201cinfluenced by ableist views of living with a disability,\u201d and she cautions that \u201ccost-effectiveness considerations may also result in the denial of life-sustaining treatments to some persons with disabilities.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The report focuses on AS &amp; E in paragraphs 36-38.\n<ul>\n<li>Paragraph 36 states that AS &amp; E are a contentious issue.\u00a0 It describes the difference between assisted suicide and euthanasia, where they\u2019re legal, and points out that places where access is limited to people with terminal illness have lower rates of assisted death than do places where there is no \u201cend-of-life\u201d eligibility criterion.<\/li>\n<li>Paragraph 37 reads in part: \u201cFrom a disability rights perspective, there is a grave concern that legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide could put at risk the lives of persons with disabilities.\u201d\u00a0 The report predicts potential problems If AS &amp; E is made available to people whether or not they\u2019re at the end of life.\n<ul>\n<li>The assumption \u201cthat it is better to be dead than to live with a disability.\u201d could cause \u201cpersons with a newly acquired impairment [to] opt for assisted dying based on prejudices, fears and low expectations of living with a disability, before even having the chance of coming to terms with and adapting to their new disability status.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPersons with disabilities may decide to end their lives because of social factors, including loneliness, social isolation and lack of access to quality support services.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPersons with disabilities, particularly older persons with disabilities, may be vulnerable to explicit or implicit pressures \u2026 including expectations from family members, financial pressures, cultural messages and even coercion.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Paragraph 38 says: \u201cGenerally, when life-ending interventions are normalized outside the end stage of terminal illness, persons with disabilities and older people may increasingly feel the need to end their lives. \u2026 Nevertheless, many disability rights advocates also oppose assisted dying in terminally ill contexts, as they fear it will put at risk persons with new or progressive disabilities or diseases, who may be mistakenly diagnosed as terminally ill but who have many years of life ahead of them.\u201d\n<ul>\n<li>Is the first sentence intended as the default position, while the second sentence (the Not Dead Yet position) is meant as an \u201calternative\u201d opinion?<\/li>\n<li>The NDY position isn\u2019t described as thoroughly as the other; does that mean that the special rapporteur doesn\u2019t favour it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In paragraph 73, Ms. Devandas uses the \u201cE\u201d word. \u201c&#8230; [E]ugenic aspirations persist in current debates related to medical and scientific practice concerning disability, such as \u2026 assisted dying.\u201d The disability rights-based opposition to AS &amp; E has always been aware of this link, but we\u2019ve been called \u201cparanoid\u201d by AS &amp; E proponents whenever we raise the subject.\u00a0 Will the U.N. report transform playing the eugenics card from \u201cinstant death\u201d to a useful strategy? It\u2019s hard to know. It may be that disability activists will have to let our allies (or what Heidi Janz calls our \u201cbackup singers\u201d) croon that chorus.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, Paragraph 70 sets out the safeguards Ms. Devandas believes are necessary \u201cIf assisted dying is to be permitted,\u201d\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFirst, access to assisted dying should be restricted to those who are at the end of life; having an impairment should\u00a0never be a reason for assisted dying to be permitted.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSecond, the free and informed consent of persons with disabilities must be secured on all matters relating to assisted dying and all forms of pressure and undue influence prevented.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThird, access to appropriate palliative care, rights-based support, &#8230; home care and other social measures must be guaranteed; decisions about assisted death should not be made because life has been made unbearable through lack of choices and control.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFourth, accurate information about the prognosis and availability of peer-support counselling must be provided.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFifth, accountability regulations must be established requiring collection and reporting of detailed information about each request and intervention for assistance in dying.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>So our (oversimplified) reading of the Special Rapporteur\u2019s opinion can be summed up as follows: \u201cAS &amp; E for people with terminal illness?\u00a0 OK, if you must, but only with safeguards. AS &amp; E for disabled people? No way!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>COURT GRANTS EXTENSION TO PASS NEW MAID LAW<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li>The four-month extension for Parliament to refine and pass\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parl.ca\/DocumentViewer\/en\/43-1\/bill\/C-7\/first-reading\">Bill C-7<\/a>\u00a0in response to the\u00a0<em>Truchon<\/em>\u00a0decision\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/pmn\/news-pmn\/canada-news-pmn\/quebec-court-gives-ottawa-four-more-months-to-amend-assisted-dying-law\">has been granted<\/a>. Justice Minister David Lametti filed a motion requesting the extension on February 17. Judge Christine Baudoin approved Lametti\u2019s motion on March 2, saying that the federal government\u2019s new legislation and recent public consultation show the government&#8217;s \u201cdiligence\u201d in the matter.<\/li>\n<li>The new deadline is July 11. In her ruling, Judge Baudoin allows those whose deaths are not \u201creasonably foreseeable\u201d to apply for an exemption through the courts. She notes that for some people, this extension prolongs both their suffering and \u201cthe violation of their rights to life, liberty and security and equality of the person.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n   ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThis week, we look at a new report from the UN, and a brief update on Bill C-7.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/03\/webcast-archive-new-u-n-report-restates-the-special-rapporteurs-position\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: New U.N. report restates the Special Rapporteur\u2019s position&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/03\/webcast-archive-new-u-n-report-restates-the-special-rapporteurs-position\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: New U.N. report restates the Special Rapporteur\u2019s position&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[562,669,694,121,96,599,118],"class_list":["post-4749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-webcast-archive","tag-bill-en","tag-catalina-devandas-aguilar-en","tag-david-lametti","tag-euthanasia-disability","tag-safeguards","tag-united-nations-en","tag-webcast","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}