Canada Overturns Ban, Finally Legalises Euthanasia, Doctor-Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia, or doctor-assisted suicide is now legal in Canada. Over the weekend, the country’s highest court overturned a two-decade old ban that will finally provide people with terminal illnesses the right to die. The push now places Canada in the league of only a handful of countries around the world, including a number of U.S. states, which accommodate such requests.

The Supreme Court of Canada said a patient may be afforded the practice of euthanasia for as long as s/he is suffering from “grievous and irremediable medical condition." A physician may only be allowed to prematurely shorten a patient’s life as long as the latter “clearly consents to the termination of life."

However, there is still much to be discussed on the administration of the law, which was first passed in 1993. For one, it has yet to be deliberated if the country will allow non-residents to take advantage of the new medical law. The Canadian government has been given a year by the Supreme Court to work out the details before the ban is formally lifted.

The landmark decision, unanimously decided at 9-0 by judges whose ages ranged from mid-50s to 74, maintained the "sanctity of life" also included the "passage unto death." This essentially extends constitutional rights into a new realm, according to the Globe and Mail. The ruling gives people a new right to die, rather than be "condemned to a life of severe and intolerable suffering."

“A person facing this prospect has two options: s/he can take his/her own life prematurely, often by violent or dangerous means, or s/he can suffer until s/he dies from natural causes. The choice is cruel,” the Supreme Court said.

But the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Association for Community Living said in a joint statement expressed some concerns on the magnitude of the new law. The groups maintained it has so much power and it is so encompassing that it may need to be trimmed down. Because the ruling said euthanasia may now be accessed by persons with “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” it somehow had given “all persons with a serious disability in Canada can access assisted suicide,” the groups said. “This degree of permissiveness does not exist anywhere else in the world.”

Apart from Canada, other countries where euthanasia or doctor-assisted death is allowed are in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland, as well as in some U.S. states, including Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

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