A rumor, very popular on social networks in recent days, would like Canada to have passed a law authorizing euthanasia for depressed children and for newborns, without the authorization of their parents.
Driven by anti-euthanasia supporters, this false rumor is based on discussions about euthanasia for children aged 14 to 17 who meet the same criteria as adults eligible for medical assistance in dying and who would be fully aware of their request and its consequences.
Mental illnesses, such as depression, are not among the causes included in the law.
Another discussion is engaged for babies under one year “victims of extreme suffering which cannot be relieved, coupled with very gloomy prognoses […] which annihilate any prospect of survival”.
“Canada authorizes euthanasia for depressed children, and without parental consent!
For several days, the cry of alarm has been taken up on all the networks.
Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, blogs… Many are alerted to the decision of the country of Justin Trudeau in terms of medical assistance at the end of life.
When some cry eugenics, others see it as the establishment of the Darwinian selection of the New World Order.
One intervention in particular crystallizes the wrath of these Internet users.
On October 27, Charles Camosy, presented as an author and professor, was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on the latter's show on the American channel Fox News.
In addition to the references to Nazism, common among anti-euthanasia, the guest argues that medicine has become "hyper-secularized" and that it has moved to the "cost-benefit ratio".
Reason why euthanasia would have been extended to the homeless and the poor.
An intox that we had already dissected.
But it would also be this same vision that would now push the authorities to authorize euthanasia on children, even including newborns who suffer from a disability according to the accusers...
FAKE OFF
As (very) often, the craziest rumors about euthanasia come from profiles that are most often opposed to it.
This is still the case here.
All the accounts that share this rumor show very strong links with conservative movements that fight against euthanasia or abortion.
Ditto for the speaker interviewed by Fox News.
Charles Camosy, presented as a simple professor, teaches Christian ethics at the Catholic University of Fordham in New York and his work shows a tenacious opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
It is his right, but it is also a point which makes it possible to question his neutrality on the subject.
To understand the context, we must go back to the history of euthanasia in Canada.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada amended the country's Criminal Code and removed the illegality of assisted suicide.
In June 2016, Bill C-14 was passed, authorizing the provision of medical assistance in dying (MAID) to eligible adults whose death is “reasonably foreseeable”.
A law under constant discussion
A few years later, in 2019, the Gladu-Truchon case, named after plaintiffs who did not meet the correct criteria to respond to MAID, invalidated the provisions of the Criminal Code which admitted conditions at the end of life. .
A new law, C-7, comes into being in 2020. It allows people with incurable diseases, associated with an irreversible decline in their capacities, to access MAID.
Reviewed again in 2021, the law continues to be the subject of work by the government and the expert institutions consulted at the request of the authorities.
In March 2021, a Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying was formed to "undertake a review of the Criminal Code provisions relating to physician-assisted dying and the application thereof, including issues relating to mature minors […]”.
What about minors who are victims of the same suffering as adults?
The question is actually asked to open this right to “mature minors”, as stated by the Department of Justice of Canada.
These minors, aged 14 to 17, would suffer from the same criteria as adults but should be considered, through more pronounced psychological monitoring, as aware of their situation and the consequences of their request.
This question is currently still unresolved.
But there is no question of depression.
The Department of Justice makes it clear that “mental illness is not considered an illness, disease or disability” for eligibility for medical assistance in dying.
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The question of opening up the right to MA for newborns is also under discussion.
It is asked by the College of Physicians of Quebec, consulted by the parliamentarians of the Committee, which relays the requests of parents.
In favor of extending MA to certain babies under one year of age, Doctor Louis Roy, inspector in the professional inspection department at the College of Physicians of Quebec, defended this position before the Special Joint Committee on medical assistance in dying in Ottawa.
It is this filmed statement that rekindled the flame of his opponents.
Parents ask to end the suffering of their babies
The doctor reiterated this request for babies under one year old "victims of extreme suffering which cannot be relieved, coupled with very bleak prognoses, and affected by severe malformations or serious polysymptomatic syndromes, which annihilate any prospect of survival.
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Faced with the outcry caused by his statements, Dr. Alain Naud, member of the Board of Directors of the College of Physicians clarified his position: "The reflection of the College of Physicians does not relate to children who are born with disabilities, but of course children who are born with conditions incompatible with life and whose death was obviously inevitable.
“He thus evoked the case of parents whose child was born without intestines, on the antenna of Radio Canada Ohdio.
Strict criteria
The mother of the child had testified publicly to the suffering of her baby during his agony, to “groan with his mouth open for weeks”.
Doctor Naud specified that an “extremely rigorous” protocol would then be put in place and that it would only concern “rare, exceptional situations, which are no less dramatic and important”, and in no case children. who would come into the world with "any" disability.
In a press release published on October 14, the College reiterates its position: “The College maintains this position and believes that parents should have the right to obtain this care for their baby.
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At present, the only people eligible for MAID must be at least 18 years old, able to make their own decisions and have serious and irremediable health problems.
They must also apply for MAID voluntarily, without external pressure, and give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying after having been informed of the means available to relieve their suffering, in particular palliative care.
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