The deVeber Institute
for Bioethics and Social Research

Quebec physicians who are proposing legal euthanasia misleadingly equate the use of analgesics for pain relief with euthanasia. Palliative care involves taking care of the patient unto death. It involves appropriate pain relief, but does not kill the patient and should not be confused with euthanasia. The legitimate medical practise of palliative care allows a person to die with a sense of dignity and respect, by caring for the person’s physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. Rather than proposing euthanasia, the Quebec College of Physicians could invest more resources into palliative care, which allows the dying to live the best that they can while they're dying.

The mission statement of the deVeber Institute states that the Institute, “conducts and disseminates research on topics connected to human life in its biological, social and ethical dimensions.” The Institute furthermore carries out the responsibility of communicating the findings of their research to the public. On May 21, 2009, the Institute did just that. Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church (Wellesley Street E. & Sherbourne area, Toronto) graciously hosted a symposium conducted by the Institute on the topic of palliative care. The symposium offered a panel of speakers including Lenore McGuire (Palliative Care Coordinator at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Toronto), and Dr. Paul Zeni (a physician and palliative care specialist in Georgetown, Ontario). The symposium concluded with a warm and helpful Q&A period. The propositions and conclusions of both speakers are fundamental as palliative care is widely misunderstood.

Among other topics, deVeber is currently conducting research on the relationship between legalized abortion and crime rates and the effects of legalized abortion on family formation trends. The research that deVeber has begun and continues to do on these topics is invaluable as it exposes evidence that disproves the assumptions made about the ‘positive’ effects of legalized abortion. In the case of the relationship between legalized abortion and crime rates, the argument has often been made that an outcome of legalized abortion has been a reduction in the numbers of potential criminals and, therefore, in crime rates. Although this argument has been given much attention by mainstream media, there is a significant body of evidence from the academic community, including notable economists and criminologists, which shows that no such correlation exists and that the opposite may in fact be true. Similarly, on the topic of the effects of legalized abortion on family formation trends, an assumption has come to be widely accepted that abortion has had either no effect on family formation, or if it has, then it has been a positive one. A problem with this assumption that has become apparent to us is that very little research has been conducted on this specific subject. What research does exist, however, shows significant negative effects of abortion on family formation, such as an increase in divorce rates for women with a history of abortion.

The deVeber Institute commends Barbara Kay for highlighting the abortion issue that we shouldn't be ignoring in this week's National Post article: 

The Abortion Issue We're Ignoring

Increasing amounts of research, which the deVeber Institute is documenting, is dispelling any doubt that a previous induced abortion increases a woman's risk of having a preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy.