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Act Now
The Government of Canada is leading consultations to inform planned accessibility legislation.
In-person sessions are coming soon to your community. Now is the chance to have your say. Read more.
Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide
CCD is committed to the principles of self-determination and the positive promotion of the image of Canadians with disabilities in society in a manner that is consistent with the principles of equality, personal security, freedom of conscience and human dignity.
CCD believes that the devaluation of the lives and experiences of persons with disabilities has been used to justify acts of violence against people with disabilities, including the murder of people with disabilities.
CCD opposes actions that may serve to further devalue the lives of people with disabilities in Canada or promote the negative stereotypes about people with disabilities as suffering individuals in need of state regulated assistance to end our lives.
CCD opposes any government action which denies people with disabilities their constitutional rights to equality, personal security, and human dignity.
CCD is committed to actions which promote a positive image of persons with disabilities.
CCD opposes government action to decriminalize assisted suicide because of the serious potential for abuse and the negative image of people with disabilities that would be produced if people with disabilities are killed with state sanction. (Policy statement passed by the CCD National Council of Representatives on June 8, 1996.)
Recent Work
April 15, 2016
Bill C-14 Does Not Go Far Enough to Protect Vulnerable Canadians
“In the Carter decision, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the Government of Canada two assignments (1) develop a regime to provide dying people access to assisted suicide and (2) protect vulnerable Canadians who at a time of weakness may be influenced to accept medical aid in dying. Unfortunately, C-14 has some serious gaps when it comes to protecting the vulnerable,” states Rhonda Wiebe, a Co-Chair of CCD’s Ending of Life Ethics Committee. “Canada must do enough to protect people like me and other Canadians with disabilities who can be made vulnerable by both our health conditions and our social and economic circumstances”. Read more.
March 29, 2016
Vulnerable Persons Standard
Read more for a sample letter that individuals can send to their MPs supporting the Vulnerable Persons Standard and asking that its terms be incorporated in the law regulating assisted suicide/euthanasia. Read more.
January 28, 2016
"Right to Palliative Care, Vulnerability Assessment & Review Board Key Pillars of PAD/VE Regime" Says Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD)
Today, the Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Dying hears from Rhonda Wiebe and Dean Richert, who co-chair CCD's Ending of Life Ethics Committee. Read more.
More on Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide
January 15, 2016
SCC Decision Disappoints
October 14, 2014
"Canadians Should not be Provided Public Support to Kill Themselves"
October 9, 2014
Ipsos-Reid Poll on 'Assisted Dying': Flawed Data and Disappointing Analysis
April 10, 2014
Steven Fletcher Is Wrong: Assisted Suicide Not A Form of Love
April 23, 2013
Prejudice Erodes Free Choice in End of Life Decision-making
April 23, 2013
Suicide Celebration Instead of Suicide Prevention
Some members of the CCD team at the Supreme Court of Canada on April 25, 2018 to intervene in S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation. (L. to R. Bob Brown, CCD Human Rights Committee member, Dianne Wintermute, legal counsel (ARCH), Dahlia James, a second year JD candidate at U. of Ottawa and Prof. Ravi Malhotra’s Research Assistant and Luke Reid, legal counsel (ARCH) , and Prof. Ravi Malhotra, a member of the Human Rights Committee, Prof. Anne Levesque, Chair of the Human Rights Committee, and Erin Carr, a second year JD candidate.
The Latimer Case
The Latimer case directly concerned the rights of persons with disabilities. Mr. Latimer's view was that a parent has the right to kill a child with a disability if that parent decides the child's quality of life no longer warrants its continuation. CCD explained to the court and to the public how that view threatens the lives of people with disabilities and is deeply offensive to fundamental constitutional values. Learn more.