I hope that philosophers will begin to support Canadian disabled people in their political struggle against Bill C-7, proposed legislation that targets them. The grievous injustice that Bill C-7 embodies should be of particular concern to Canadian philosophers given that a number of their colleagues have initiated it, developed it, and lobbied for it. Where […]
Blowing the Whistle on MAiD/Bill C-7 and the Naturalization of Disability and Mental Illness
As a disabled philosopher of disability, one of the most (though certainly not the most) frustrating aspects of the recent discussions and debates about MAiD and Bill C-7 that have ensued in the Canadian Senate, on Daily Nous and other blogs, on Facebook, and on Twitter is the way that disability and mental illness have […]
Senator McPhedran and Bill C-7 Amendment
Here is a must-watch speech by Senator Marilou McPhedran in the current Canadian Senate debate on Bill C-7, proposed legislation to remove the foreseeable death clause from current MAiD legislation. Senator McPhedran, who has a long history of work on policy instruments with respect to international treaties, human rights, and minority populations, both disputes a […]
Letter in Opposition to Bill C-7 from Robert Wilson and Matthew Barker
In my previous post, I strongly urged members of the philosophical community in Canada and elsewhere to write letters to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the Canadian Government in opposition to the passage of Bill C-7, proposed legislation that would remove the “reasonably foreseeable” clause of the current MAiD legislation […]
Philosophers and Letters of Opposition to Bill C-7
During the past year, I’ve written various posts about MAiD and Bill C-7 (for example, here), including a post about a letter that I wrote and sent to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in opposition to Bill C-7, proposed legislation that is currently under consideration in the Canadian Senate, having previously […]
More on Opposition to Bill C-7 (Medically-Assisted Suicide) and the Role of Philosophers
Last week, once again in the context of discussion about MAiD, I returned to the subject of how bioethics and bioethicists continue to shape philosophy departments in Canada and Canadian public policy with respect to the lives of disabled people and the limiting effects that this institutional formation has on the range of views that […]
Opposition to Bill C-7 and Too Many Letters of Reference
No, this post isn’t taking on the important work done on The Philosophers’ Cocoon blog by advising philosophy job applicants about the appropriate contents of their dossier. Rather this post draws upon past interventions that I’ve made on BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY and on the earlier Discrimination and Disadvantage blog (here, here, and here) to reiterate that […]
Letter to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the Government of Canada in Opposition to Bill C-7
This morning, as per Catherine Frazee’s request, I submitted a letter to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the Canadian Government. The letter articulates my opposition to Bill C-7, which would expand access to medically-assisted suicide (“MAID”) for disabled people. Given the dearth of disabled philosophers (of disability) in Canadian philosophy, […]
Bioethics, Catherine Frazee, and MAID in Canada
In a previous post, I discussed the role that bioethicists in Canada, including feminist bioethicists, have played in the development in Canada of legislation and public policy designed to facilitate medically-assisted suicide and subsequent expansion of it. This set of events should be recognized as the incremental normalization of power relations that I discuss in […]
