The Federal Government today tabled legislation that would give some Canadians the right to choose an assisted death.

While the bill adopts some of the important provisions that the BC Humanist Association, Dying With Dignity Canada, the BC Civil Liberties Association and other advocates of choice in dying have called for, the government took a more narrow approach to the issue.

Natural and legal rights are two types of rights. Legal rights are those bestowed onto a person by a given legal system. (i.e., rights that can be modified, repealed, and restrained by human laws). Natural rights are those not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws)              Wikipedia

The confusion between these two types of rights, and the propensity of states, religious institutions, employers, philosophers and a host of other social and political entities to deliberately impose their own system of rights, makes it necessary for me to reclaim what could never be taken from me in the first place, and which I can never even give away: my Natural Rights.

Then, to consider the picture in full, I must accept the responsibilities which come with those rights, if I want to live my life with purpose.

There's an implicit irony in any declaration of Universal Natural Rights. For what is a right accept the liberty to choose one thing or course of action over another? And what is a Universal Natural Right accept one that is inalienable and applicable in any circumstance? The irony in those two statements is the conclusion that the only thing I cannot choose is to give up is my Natural Rights. They can be bludgeoned senseless, starved to death, choked to the point of unconsciousness, or – more often – forgotten in the grind of daily routine, but they cannot be given or taken away.

As for the responsibilities that make Natural Rights cohesive, directed and – if we so choose – contributory, they can and often are shunned, a failure of will that more-often-than-not renders proclamations of Natural Rights mere bravado.

Society at large – any social grouping – abhors any assertion of Natural Rights. Social groupings always have tyrannical underpinnings: you either obey the rules of the group, or you are punished, even outcast for your transgressions. This insistence on obedience is necessary, otherwise collective cohesion and action become impossible. Where we go too far is insisting that the rules must be obeyed without question – that the group has the 'moral' or 'religious' or other authority to impose its will not only on our actions, but on our very thoughts.

It is time, I believe, to moderate those demands for obedience. There will be many occasions when I have to moderate my expression of Natural Rights in order to work for the common good. In fact, most of my waking hours will be spent adapting to a collective purpose. But I am not surrendering my Natural Rights in those instances; I am setting them aside because I believe my own interests can best be advanced by adapting to a common set of rules designed to achieve a social or collective end.

Of course the group can impose its will if my expression of Natural Rights is perceived to be a threat to them or myself. No-one passes through life without having the will of a social group imposed upon him or her. Indeed, so immersed are we in the impositions of bodily function, family and community from the day we are born, that we rarely even arrive at the point where we are conscious of our Natural Rights. More likely we quickly come to consider our expressions of Natural Rights to be outbursts and tantrums or thick-headedness at best; hardened criminal activity or treason at worst.

I would hazard to guess that before the 19th Century the vast majority would have considered any inkling of Natural Rights an absurd fantasy to be atoned for rather than embraced. None of that diminishes the importance of Natural Rights at this point in our historical evolution. My belief is that Natural Rights have been an underlying possibility we are only now in a position to experience and express – that we are at that place in time where consciousness must consider the full expression of Natural Rights as necessary for humanity, for living spirit, to advance in the world.

Dangerous and frivolous as the expression of Natural Rights seems to the status quo, it will be the jostling and harmonizing of billions of individual wills that unleashes the full human potential. We may not get a chance to realize that level of freedom. The technological and social revolutions that have made the full expression of Natural Rights a possibility rather than a hopelessly abstract theory are also capable of clamping down and stifling free expression, and there are tyrants ever-ready to turn those powers against us.

That is why the Humanist movement is important to me. There are many unconnected strands in this essay, the most important being: How is 'moral' or 'collective' action possible in a world where Natural Rights are enshrined? That will have to be a topic for another entry.

Upcoming Ideas: Who am I? / Nothing out of Nothing – so every thing’s always been / The four aspects of living spirit: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual / Morality, Ethics and Natural Rights / Ego: The necessary illusion / Just because or jest because / I think, therefore I spam / Who do I pray to (Take 2) / Killing gods is no laughing matter.

The new draft bill to allow physician-assisted dying in Canada will likely be made public later this week. However, a source told The Canadian Press that the draft bill will not give patients the right to make advance requests for assisted dying.

We have argued - along with many of you in your own words - that physicians should honour a patient's request when that request is made freely and explicitly in advance.

This isn't just a theoretical threat but one that could drastically reduce the right for those facing a diagnosis of dementia to choose an assisted death.

Please use Dying With Dignity Canada's updated email-an-MP tool to send a letter to your Member of Parliament asking them to protect our right to choose.

The heckler in the classic film Miracle on 34th Street calls Kris Kringle “a big, fat fake.” In court his defence lawyer argues that if the American people can believe in God – for “In God We Trust” figures in their national anthem and coins – without any proof, then they can also believe in Santa Claus.

Judging by all the white-bearded and red-suited men in shopping malls at Christmas, it appears that Americans now believe in more than one Santa Claus, just as there are those who believe in more than one god, like the Hindus of India or the Shinto Buddhists of Japan. But from the time of the Babylonian deity Marduk, the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, the Israelite god Yahweh and the Zoroastrian spirit Ahura Mazda, there has been the notion of only one god, bringing us ever closer to the true, round figure.

Last month, news broke that Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) is looking to expand its private plasma collection services to British Columbia. CPR, who currently operate a clinic in Saskatoon, gives $25 to each plasma donor.

As Humanists who value reason and compassion, we have a duty to explore the ethical issues surrounding issues in the public debate.

Last week, we made headlines for challenging the distribution of religious materials in Abbotsford schools. We will continue to push for secular schools and against religious privilege in our government institutions.

But another part of our mission, and the broader Humanist worldview, is to provide a positive alternative to religion.

That's why, I'm excited to announce our first Humanist Officiant Training seminar, coming up on May 7. This seminar is a step toward fulfilling our mission of providing meaningful ceremonies at significant times of life, such as marriages and deaths.

If you're interested in becoming one of our first officiants, please get in touch with me.

The BC Humanist Association will be holding its first Humanist Officiant Training session on Saturday May 7, 2016 for potential Humanist celebrants.

Part of the mission of the BCHA is to offer and provide meaningful ceremonies at significant times such as marriage and death. Elsewhere in Canada and around the world, different Humanist organizations have long provided secular alternatives to mark important life milestones.

In a letter to the superintendent of the Abbotsford School District during spring break, the BC Humanist Association (BCHA) called for the distribution of Gideon Bibles and other religious materials in public schools be stopped.  The BCHA calls the practice unconstitutional and in violation of the BC School Act.

Each year the teachers in the district distribute consent cards, provided by Gideon’s International, to grade 5 students. The District then distributes Gideon Bibles to each student who returns a signed card.

We're only three months into 2016 and there have already been nearly 100 terrorist attacks around the world.

The most infamous ones in the past week were in Brussels and Lahore, India, claiming the lives of over 100 people.

Yet even in the aftermath of these atrocities, there is reason for hope. Chris Cocking's article, which I republished on our blog last week, explores the outpouring of empathy, compassion and altruism that often follow these incidents.

For me, this is where the hope of Humanism lies: rejecting fear and lending a helping hand to another human being.

Another reason to be hopeful is that despite these recent attacks, we have good evidence to suggest that global violence is continuing to decline.

One of our members is interested in studying the status of minority religious and ethnic groups in Muslim majority countries. I've pasted the proposal below and if you're interested in helping out, simply email me at [email protected] and I'll put you in touch.

The work can be done by anyone with an internet connection and there's no requirement that you be a professional academic. The goal is to get this information out there so we can have more informed discussions.