Deal Reached for Vote on US Funding Bill

By Joseph Lord

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that lawmakers had reached a deal for a vote on a package to keep the [US] government funded through March 14.

“I have very good news for my colleagues and the country. Democrats and Republicans have reached, just reached an agreement that will allow us to pass the CR tonight, before the midnight deadline,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Washington Post Opposes the Expansion of Canada's Euthanasia Law

By Lisa Blumberg

The broadening of eligibility under the Canada’s euthanasia law to include people who are deemed to suffer from “untreatable mental illnesses” has been delayed once again. The expansion had been scheduled to take effect in March. According to the New York Times, the postponement occurred because a parliamentary committee concluded that there are not enough doctors, particularly psychiatrists, in the country to assess patients with mental illnesses who want to end their lives and to help them do so. The Canadian Health Minister Mark Holland stated that “the system is not ready, and we need more time.” He did not give any new effective date for the expansion, although a committee member expressed the hope that the delay would be indefinite.

Shortly before the delay was announced but when there were already signs that the Canadian Government was having “second thoughts”, the Editorial  Board of the Washington Post wrote a sharply worded piece opposing voluntary euthanasia for psychiatric survivors in Canada and elsewhere. The importance of a major newspaper taking such a stand cannot be overestimated.