B.C Judge Rules Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal

[jobeterob]

CTV News


B.C. judge rules assisted suicide should be legal

15/06/2012 4:10:34 PM

Bethany Lindsay
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has invalidated Canada's law banning doctor-assisted suicide for seriously and terminally ill people, calling the prohibition unconstitutional and discriminatory.


Justice Lynn Smith said her declaration is suspended for one year to give Parliament time to decide how to handle the decision, suggesting that physician-assisted death be limited to "grievously ill, competent, non-ambivalent, voluntary adults" who are fully aware of their diagnosis and have no reasonable treatment options.








"In my opinion, the law creates a distinction that is discriminatory. It perpetuates and worsens a disadvantage experienced by persons with disabilities. The dignity of choice should be afforded to Canadians equally, but the law as it stands does not do so with respect to this ultimately personal and fundamental choice," Smith wrote in her judgment Friday.

There is no word yet on whether the federal government will appeal the decision, but the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has already asked Crown prosecutors to do so.

The challenge to the law was filed by the BC Civil Liberties Association on behalf of 64-year-old Gloria Taylor, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, as well as Lee Carter and her husband Hollis Johnson, who helped Carter's mother end her life in Switzerland two years ago.

BCCLA lawyer Grace Pastine told reporters outside the Vancouver court that Taylor wanted to pass on a few words about the landmark decision.

"I'm deeply grateful to have the comfort of knowing that I'll have a choice at the end of my life. This is a blessing for me and other seriously and incurably ill individuals," Taylor's message reads.

"This allows me to approach my death in the same way I've approached my life: with dignity, independence and grace."

The judge wrote in her decision that Taylor should be allowed a constitutional exemption during the next year to allow her to die with the assistance of a doctor.

Pastine said the decision will provide seriously ill people with the "peace and comfort" of choosing how their lives are ended.

"The Supreme Court has decided that Gloria and others like her should be able to decide how much suffering to endure at the end of life depending on their own values and beliefs," Pastine said.

"The government has no place at the bedside of seriously ill Canadians who have made firm and considered decisions about the amount of suffering they will endure."

Lawyer Joseph Arvay, who argued on behalf of the BCCLA, said that Taylor cried when he told her the news. He added that he expects the government to appeal, but is holding out hope that the Conservatives will respect Smith's "extremely thorough, extremely thoughtful" judgment.

Doctor-assisted suicide is already legal in several European countries and the American states of Washington, Oregon and Montana.


Anti-euthanasia activists fear elder abuse

Opponents of euthanasia have argued that legalizing the practice will make elderly and disabled people vulnerable to abuse by family and friends who might pressure them to end their lives.

Smith acknowledged in her decision that permitting doctor-suicide assisted suicide does present some risks for the elderly and disabled, but said that stringent safeguards would "substantially minimize" those dangers.

But the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition insists that safeguards are not enough.

"We think that this judgment decided to minimize and disregard a lot of the evidence of harm in other jurisdictions where euthanasia and assisted suicide has been practiced," executive director Dr. Will Johnston told reporters.

He said he was disappointed but not surprised by what he termed the judge's "radical" decision.

Besides the risk of elder abuse, Johnston said he fears that legalizing physician-assisted suicide could also contribute to a rise in suicides among people who are neither sick nor dying.

"There is such a thing as suicide contagion," he said.

It's been nearly two decades since the last major legal battle on the issue of assisted suicide divided Canadians.

In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected activist Sue Rodriguez's appeal to invalidate the law prohibiting assisted suicide. Like Taylor, Rodriguez suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She died the year after the court decision.

[splanky]

I've come to agree with the judge. I know many people would attack me for saying so but I've watched too many
friends and relatives die slow painful deaths....