The Canadian private members Euthanasia bill C-384 of Francine Lalonde received another hour of debate in the Parliament on March 16th. Because the Parliament was adjourned in January and February, this debate must be seen as a first reading (although in October 2009 such a debate already started). The second hour is now expected to take place sometime in May this year.
Three MP’s spoke in favour of the bill, five opposed. The last one, Joe Comartin, remarkably did recognise the necessity of once exempting euthanasia from teh Crinminla Code, but thinks it now would be “too early, too premature”. He relates this opinion to the testimony of Dutch Euthanasia Law’s architect Els Borst (apparently he did not read or hear that the same Els Borst herself firmly rebutted this misinterpretation of her ideas; comm. RJ – see earlier news item on this web).
The official minutes of this debate makes interesting reading!