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In light of the events of last month, it seems that requests to extend euthanasia do not take holidays.

In Quebec, barely a month after the publication of a letter by the secretary of the College of Physicians – in which he expressed his concern about a growing “pressure demanding a form of death à la carte” and in which he denounced those who interpret refusals of euthanasia as a form of exclusion – lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard is challenging before the courts the cases of two people living with disabilities who were refused the assistance of a physician to kill themselves. The plaintiffs requested the removal of the “reasonably foreseeable death” clause of the federal law as well as the “end of life” requirement in the Quebec law.

Meanwhile, the first hearings of the long-awaited trial of Michel Cadotte – a man accused of killing his wife suffering from Alzheimers by suffocating her with a pillow – revealed that the he now has a “hard time” living with his actions to the point of having “an urgent need to consult a psychologist.” In spite of everything, Mr. Cadotte will plead “compassion” to justify the murder of his wife who had already claimed that she “would rather die than find herself in a CHSLD.”

Thus, instead of leading to ways of improving living conditions in CHSLDs, this turn of events will have a direct impact on one of the extensions currently being studied at the federal level. In fact, experts are presently wondering whether it is socially acceptable to end the life of a person with a form of dementia despite the fact that they will no longer be able to express their consent at the moment of death.

Meanwhile, in British Columbia, a trial began to examine the constitutionality of the federal law. For the courts, the ultimate issue will be whether the criteria of “reasonably foreseeable death” should be seen as a “safeguard” or, as the plaintiffs argue, a “barrier to access” that deprives people of their “right to die.”

Clearly, the venom inherent in any law legalizing a form of assisted suicide continues imperturbably to spread into our social system. Barely a year has passed since the Federal and Quebec legislation came into force, and we are already seeing a number of legal appeals calling for the extension of assisted suicide to other “exceptional cases.”

At the heart of these various cases brought before the courts – behind the thick emotional smoke and ad-nauseam repeated use of the word “compassion” – there is, in fact, an extremely important social issue for our collective future: what value will society place on people living with a disability? This question is closely linked with the following response we offer: will we allow the state to endorse and reinforce the prejudices that are attached to people living with a disability – the label of living a life “unworthy of being lived”? Or will we, on the contrary, fight against these ignoble prejudices?

For our part, as was the case in my article published in the Huffington Post, be assured that Living with Dignity will continue to make the voices heard of those who want to build a caring society rather than one that facilitates the death of those who are needing help. We count on your support, and we encourage you to participate in the debate by calling open lines, writing to journalists, or contacting your MPs, and by writing your comments under articles that defend our vision.