Toronto's Cardinal Collins leads charge against assisted suicide

March 07, 2016

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto issued a call for opposition to physician-assisted suicide, in a homily that was delivered to parishioners at all of the more than 200 churches in the archdiocese.

With Canadian politicians weighing plans for assisted suicide, Cardinal Collins warned: "Physicians across our country who have devoted their lives to healing patients will soon be asked to do the exact opposite."

The cardinal said that a parliamentary report calling for legalization of assisted suicide "should shock us to the core." He suggested that government should devote resources instead to better forms of palliative care for those who are terminally ill.

Cardinal Collins also said that the government should respect the consciences of health-care workers who might be asked to assist suicides-- and of taxpayers who could be asked to subsidize the process. "It is unjust," he said, "to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician, or, in the case of a health-care facility, in order to qualify for government funding."

 

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Further information:

• Canada’s largest Catholic archdiocese mobilizing against assisted-dying law (Globe and Mail)
• Archbishop of Toronto speaks out against assisted dying (CBC)
• Statement and Call to Action from Cardinal Thomas Collins Concerning Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide (Toronto archdiocese)