Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

A “Merciless Assault on Human Dignity”

In Ontario today, doctors who decline to euthanize their patients are required to provide an “effective referral”: They are obliged, on pain of losing their license to practice, to send a troubled patient to a doctor of lighter conscience who will kill that patient. Cardinal Collins is fighting this abomination. Continue Reading »

Is There No Moral Law?

In point of fact, there is no such thing as theological neutrality, just as there is no such thing as moral neutrality. There are many things, to be sure, both morally and theologically, that the state does well to leave to civil society, neither legislating nor making the basis for legislation. Unfortunately, assisted suicide and euthanasia are not among them. Continue Reading »

​The New Hobbesians

Bill C-14 (now before the Senate) is about to thrust Canada into the brave new world of assisted suicide. The “right to die” has been sold to the public as a triumph for personal autonomy. This rhetoric of individual liberty, however, is belied by the bill’s disregard for the conscience rights of Canadians. Continue Reading »

No Peace with Wicked Law

Those who think an amended C-14, with some regulatory tightening and some provision for religious or conscientious objection, is what even opponents of the bill should now aim at, as the lesser of evils, should think again. Here are some things they should think about:First, C-14 is not a bill to . . . . Continue Reading »

Why We Cannot Reach Compromise

The other day, I read a column in the National Post that made my stomach turn. It wasn’t the quality of the writing, which was quite good, but the content. The writer celebrated a recent Canadian Supreme Court ruling that determined lethal-injection termination is a charter right. As a result, . . . . Continue Reading »

Canadian Health Care System Also a Mess

We hear much about the deficiencies of the American health care system. But things aren’t well north of the border, either—according to Claude Castonguay,one of the architects of the Canadian system. From the Investors Business Daily editorial:Four decades later, as the chairman of a . . . . Continue Reading »

Filter Tag Articles