Although some Canadians hesitate when asked for their opinion on physician-assisted suicide, UAlberta Law Professor Erin Nelson and University of Notre Dame Australia Professor Margaret Somerville have an answer ready.
On November 28, the two academics participated in a lunchtime panel discussion at the Law Centre presented by the Runnymede Society, University of Alberta, entitled "A matter of life and death: philosophical and legal perspectives on assisted dying."
Approximately 120 students and faculty members were in attendance as the professors presented their opposing viewpoints - Nelson for, and Somerville against - and answered questions from a moderator and audience members. Each professor made arguments and responded to claims made by the other.
Prof. Nelson said that the issue comes down to finding a compromise that balances the interest of patients with the interest of the providers.
"Respect for autonomy in the medical decision making context means that each individual is entitled to make his or her own medical decisions," she said, adding that these decisions are often influenced by the individual's own values and beliefs.
"We can all agree that the decisions we are contemplating when we seek medical-assisted dying are profoundly personal."
Prof. Nelson added that she believes institutions like hospitals should not hold religious or moral values, citing some facilities against assisted suicide that have turned away patients and referred them to other hospitals for treatment.
In contrast, Prof. Somerville is very much against euthanasia.
"The debate is essentially between people who have so-called 'progressive values' who give priority to individual autonomy, and people who have more 'traditional values' who give priority to respect for life," she said.
Prof. Somerville also spoke about the importance of considering future generations when it comes to making decisions about assisted suicide.
"We have obligations to leave future generations a world in which reasonable people would want to live," she said. "I'm fairly certain euthanasia will become part of the norm for how we die, and that is very dangerous."
Whether one agrees with Prof. Nelson or Prof. Somerville, one message from today was clear: assisted suicide is an issue that isn't going anywhere.
Professor Erin Nelson teaches Tort Law, Health Care Ethics and the Law, and Law & Medicine at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. She is also a fellow and member of the advisory board of the Health Law Institute. Her research interests include: the interface of health care law and ethics, women's health, issues in reproductive health, and feminist legal theory. She has published articles and book chapters on a number of health law related topics, such as consent, the regulation of health care practitioners, intervention in pregnancy, pediatric genetics, and the tort law duties of pregnant women. Her recent book, Law, Policy and Reproductive Autonomy (Hart, 2013) explores theoretical and practical issues in reproductive decision-making.
Professor Margaret Somerville joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney in September 2016, having recently left McGill University, where she was a professor of law and medicine for 40 years. During her time at McGill, Prof. Somerville launched the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law and gave the 2006 Massey Lectures. Prof. Somerville is a member of the Order of Australia and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In her new role at the University of Notre Dame Australia, she will help establish a major bioethical component in their new MD program.