CCBI News: UN Committee Questions Euthanasia Legislation; Brain-Computer Interface

April 8, 2025

Dear Friends of CCBI,

UN Committee Questions Canada’s Euthanasia Legislation

Over the past ten years since the legalization of euthanasia in Canada, more people are becoming aware of the dangers of its extension to those who are not terminally ill or who neither experience irremediable suffering nor fulfill other criteria set out in the original legislation. There is a societal perception that being ‘terminally ill’ is the most likely time for people to turn to euthanasia as a relief from suffering and as a way of hastening death. They know their days are limited and prefer to die now rather than living out the time they have left. While extensions have been allowed and the criteria for MAID eligibility have been amended, in reality suffering from a terminal illness was never a requirement listed in the original MAID legislation, although many people assume this was the case, perhaps because it is a major criterion in laws regarding the provision of euthanasia in most countries where the practice is legal. This unawareness seems to include a United Nations Committee, which spoke out in March against some Canadian euthanasia procedures. It asked Canada to revoke its provisions for euthanasia to those who are NOT terminally ill.

The Act allowing euthanasia in Canada in 2016 and subsequently extended, reads (cf., Medical assistance in dying: Overview – Canada.ca):

Grievous and irremediable medical condition

To be considered as having a grievous and irremediable medical condition, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must:

• have a serious illness, disease or disability
• be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed
• experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable

You do not need to have a fatal or terminal condition to be eligible for medical assistance in dying. (My emphasis)

If your only medical condition is a mental illness, you are not eligible for medical assistance in dying until March 17, 2027.

If you have a mental illness along with other medical conditions, you may be eligible for medical assistance in dying.

Eligibility is always assessed on an individual basis and takes all relevant circumstances into account. However, you must meet all the criteria to be eligible

While welcome in its critique of Canada’s wide-open legislation, the recent United Nations committee reviewing Canada’s treatment of disabled people is inaccurate on this point. It is understandable that it cannot possibly have imagined that Canadian legislation had never, from the beginning, cited terminal illness as a prerequisite for eligibility for MAID. It is only now calling on government “… to repeal medical assistance in dying for anyone without a terminal illness, a procedure referred to as the “Track 2” option for MAID.” I believe many Canadians are also only now realizing how all-encompassing MAID legislation is and how broad the criteria are. More concern has been raised in the past few years about these criteria than over the original legislation in 2016, but it is definitely ‘better late than never’ in this matter, and the UN committee is highlighting Canada’s extreme legislation and calling for a halt, not for all euthanasia procedures, but for those for people who do not have a terminal illness. That is at least something!

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommends that Canada create an agency to investigate complaints and, more to the point for many of us, “… that the country invest heavily in addressing the systemic failures that lead disabled people to apply for assisted death in the first place.” This latter demand is one which Canadians must countenance, since it indicates a failure of our social services to respond adequately to the basic needs of some people with disabilities or rare illnesses, e.g., suitable housing, personal healthcare or home help, special services, etc. For many people such help is indispensable – they are necessities of life! The fact that some over-burdened people have chosen euthanasia because of non-provision of such needs reflects badly not just on the legislation that permits this, but on society as a whole for permitting this to happen.

The report calls MAID, “…state-sanctioned relief from suffering to people who are failed by governments that don’t properly fund access to health care or accessible housing.” Opponents of euthanasia in Canada have been trying to emphasize these points for the last five or six years, and it is no small encouragement to know that outside bodies such as the UN realize the failure of Canadian government to fund adequate housing, health and social services, while providing easier access to euthanasia. For those who see the virtue in espousing the culture of life, there is work to do, beginning with awareness of our own legislation!

Brain-Computer Interface

Scientists have developed a device that can translate thoughts about speech into spoken words. Although still at the experimental stage, they hope brain-computer interface could some day help give voice to those unable to speak. In a clinical trial, doctors implanted the device in a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who had not been able to speak for 18 years after a stroke.

An article in The Globe and Mail said that the team “…recorded the woman’s brain activity using electrodes while she spoke sentences silently in her brain. The scientists used a synthesizer they built using her voice before her injury to create a speech sound that she would have spoken. They trained an AI model that translates neural activity into units of sound.” Apparently, it works in the same was as systems, for example on some cell phones, which transcribe meetings or phone calls as we talk. The technology used in brain-computer interface will need to undergo short and longer-term research to determine both effectiveness in results and safety issues, but is an example of the ‘good’ side of AI, called for recently by Pope Francis, who stated in his prayer intention for April that we should, “…place technology at the service of the human person” – as a means of uniting people, helping those in need, improving the lives of the sick, fostering a culture of encounter, and protecting the planet.” Important words for life!

United Nations report recommends Canada repeal MAID for people without terminal illnesses – The Globe and Mail
Experimental brain-computer implant gives voice to stroke survivor who couldn’t speak for 18 years – The Globe and Mail
CCBI News: Artificial Intelligence – Positive Aspects | Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute – Affiliated with the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto
Pope’s April prayer intention: Technology should benefit everyone – Vatican News

Pope Francis’ Intentions for April:

For the use of the new technologies
Let us pray that the use of the new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.

Moira and Bambi