This week, CPL Board member Dr. Larry Reynolds was one of five panel members discussing euthanasia and assisted suicide on TVO's "The Agenda with Steve Paikin."

Panelists discussed the recenlty published Royal Society of Canada report that favoured the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. The panel discussion also touched on definitions of assistied suicide and euthanasia; the moral/ethical difference between suicide and assisted suicide; autonomy vs. interconnectedness of people-in-relationship; dignity therapy and depression in terminally ill people; and even where this public policy decision ought to be made (i.e. through the democratic process, not through court rulings.)

One of the items all panelists agreed on was the need for better and more palliative care.

Watch the panel here and let us know what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Zkgu-xHwM&feature=youtu.be

Here is another link to the November 11, 2011 Gray/Morales debate at the University of Ottawa. This one is higher resolution, so a bit clearer to watch than the previous link I posted.

And so we go (slightly) West. The CPL Board decided to hold the 2012 Medical Students Forum in Winnipeg. There are very good reasons for that, which I will get into a bit later on. Not that we need to build a case justifying the choice...no, the name says it all: Exotic Winnipeg. Clearly, I've never been there. When I mentioned Winnipeg to a few people on the closing day of the 2011 MSF in Ottawa, I got the straight-faced response, not one betraying any sense of overwhelming excitement. I won't let that douse my enthusiasm! To me, Winnipeg is a wonderful, strange new land, full of potential, an adventure waiting to unfold.

The great potential really is in the body of pro-life medical students that will gather there.

You may wonder how we choose the MSF city each year. We like to go where we haven't gone before. If we've been West, we tend to look East next, but that's a flexible rule. We go where there are active pro-life medical student groups, to help support the club members, and to get their help with the Forum. We also go where there are no pro-life groups that we know of, to reach to new campuses. In short: it's arbitrary.

I will keep you posted through the year, as we confirm speakers and topics. Start watching for the official announcement and application in September, 2012.

Someone in the audience video recorded the debate at the University of Ottawa on Friday night. You can watch it here.