Women with disabilities facing pressure to choose assisted suicide in Canada, Evangelical body warns
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has urged Canadian authorities to repeal euthanasia laws for mental illness, highlighting a negative effect on women with disabilities, and to create a new anti-human trafficking strategy — in a nine-page submission to the United Nations.
The brief was written for the 89th session of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly. It's part of a review of Canada’s contribution in eliminating discrimination against women.
Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was legalized for those with disabilities or chronic illnesses in Canada in 2021. However, the EFC stated that since the expansion of assisted dying laws, there have been many instances of people seeking MAiD because of a lack of medical or social support, poverty or housing insecurity, or “intolerable conditions in long term care.”
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“Many have had MAiD suggested to them by medical professionals, sometimes repeatedly,” stated the EFC. “Eligibility on the basis of disability endangers and devalues the lives of disabled Canadians.”
The EFC pointed out that although the overall number of MAiD deaths were equal between sexes, with Canadian Government figures from 2022 showing 51.4% men and 48.6% women, the ratio of women to men among people with mental disorders is “significantly skewed.”
Fifty-nine percent of these deaths were women and 41% men. This suggests a discrimination against people with disabilities, which is “experienced acutely by women with disability or chronic illness.”
The EFC also expressed concerns that a Canadian National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking is due to end this year, with no replacement.
About 94% of trafficking victims in the country are women and girls, the EFC said, adding: “It is essential that Canada enact a permanent, responsive strategy with stable funding to effectively fight human trafficking. Time limited strategies can result in gaps in funding, policy and response.”
An “inextricable link” between human trafficking and prostitution was also expressed in the report, resulting in paid sex derived from the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.
“We know from other jurisdictions that when prostitution is legalized or decriminalized, the sex industry expands, and so does trafficking,” wrote the EFC.
The EFC called on the Canadian government to enact a permanent anti-trafficking strategy, to include a survivor advisory committee, funding for victim services and legal training for those involved in combating human trafficking.
Measures should also be enforced to reduce demands for paid sex, the EFC stated, implementing the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA).
“The system of prostitution must not be normalized or legitimized. Canada must do better than accept prostitution as a solution to female poverty, racism and a range of other underlying social issues.”
Furthermore, the EFC supported the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, as previously reported by Christian Daily International, recognizing prostitution as a “system of exploitation and violence.”
Finally, this framing of prostitution must be “maintained and reflected” in all U.N. protocols and treaties, including CEDAW, the EFC stated.
Originally published at Christian Daily International
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