Words applied to a topic are like brush
strokes applied to a canvas. A
commendable interpretation of a subject requires understanding of the theme and
understanding of what words do. Set ten
artists at their easels to paint an identical subject and the result will be
ten distinct renditions. Ten pairs of artists' eyes uniquely observe details
and depth of field and darks and lights and call for personalized selections of
brushes, colours and strokes. Ten opinions about Doctor Assisted Suicide assess
the February 6, 2015 Supreme Court of Canada judgement individually. The words
that are chosen to speak about this are critical to the social outcome.
Parliament must within the next twelve
months develop a legislative response. None of the three major political
parties has expressed a position on this highly sensitive matter. Thousands of
citizens, journalists, preachers will express a position.
An artist in good health and with vitality,
asked to paint an interpretation of life and death, may spend a month
developing two pleasant panels, one depicting a newborn infant in the arm of an
ecstatic mother clad in pink and another panel featuring a flag at half-mast
against a bright blue sky. A different painter, faced with the same art challenge
but who is living with incapacitating pain and who can no longer focus for
sixty seconds on the art that once filled his mind and life, might take a house
painter's brush and slap one half of a canvas with black to represent life, and
the other half with radiant yellow to represent death.
It will be crucial for legislators, citizens,
journalists, and preachers to understand why the second artist painted as he
did. It is imperative that words are chosen that are precise and that
appropriately respect, eternal values, Canadian charter rights, personal
autonomy, and sanctity of life. The
painting rivals the complexity of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
