Tories Look to Make Death With Dignity a Wedge Issue for 2015 Elections

Well, that didn't take long.  Just days after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the criminal prohibition on physician assisted suicide, Harper justice minister Peter MacKay let's slip the Tories see it as a possible election issue.

[MacKay] noted the court provided a calendar year to deliver its answer, but said the government will be taking "the time we need" after describing it as an important and far-reaching issue for Canadians.

He acknowledged the decision's timing ahead of a federal election expected in October and said input from a broad array of people will help inform and instruct the government's path forward.

"How it will impact or how it might impact on an election I suppose depends on what happens between now and October, if anything, and how people view this as moving their vote."

For a prime minister like Harper, nothing that can be turned into a wedge issue is off limits.  Nothing.  And if there was ever an issue to pique Harper's basest fundamentalist instincts this is it.

Politicizing death and suffering - Conservatives at their finest.  They'll turn anything and anyone into a political football, even the terminally ill.

Euros Strongly Back Assisted Suicide Laws

A poll of 12-European countries conducted for the Swiss Medical Lawyers Association found very strong majorities in all but one country in support of legalizing assisted suicide.

In almost all the 12 countries polled, three-quarters or more of those responding to questions posed by the Swiss Medical Lawyers Association (SMLA) said people should be able to decide when and how they die.

Two-thirds to three-quarters of them said they could imagine opting for assisted suicide themselves if they suffered from an incurable illness, serious disability or uncontrollable pain.


Germans were most open to letting people decide when and how they die, with 87 percent supporting the idea, and results slowly descended to Denmark's 71 percent in 11th place.

Greece was the only exception to this strong support, with only 52 percent backing the idea of allowing assisted suicide.

Spaniards were the most willing to consider asking for help to die, with 78 percent support, followed closely by Germans (77 percent) and the French (75 percent).

In Britain, 71 percent said they might seek assisted suicide while Greece was again the most reluctant with 56 percent saying they might do so.

More than three-quarters of those polled in all countries said only doctors or trained practitioners should perform assisted suicides.

A majority of all respondents said doctors should not lose their licenses if they help a patient die. Results ranged from 84 percent in Britain to 58 percent in Greece.

A Gallup poll in Britain found basically the same thing.   in Britain=of respondents opposed prosecution of physicians who assist patients to die.   82% actively supported euthanasia.

Physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in four Euro nations - Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland.   In the United States it has spread from Oregon to Washington and Montana.