Canadian Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY approves Doctor Assisted Suicide

This is a very important decision for Canadians to pay attention to today. It's about time we give our dying some dignity, to choose when to leave this life, on their own terms. And there's no reason doctors, who support those actions, should be held liable for their deaths.

Source

The Supreme Court will rule today on a question it last considered more than 20 years ago: should it be legal for doctors to help dying patients kill themselves?

The case that will be decided Friday was brought by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association on behalf of two women, Kay Carter and Gloria Taylor, both of whom have died since the legal battle began. Both women had degenerative diseases and wanted the right to have a doctor help them die. Carter went to Switzerland with her daughter, Lee, to die. Taylor died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

A lawyer on behalf of Carter and Taylor argued that they were being discriminated against because their physical disabilities didn't allow them to kill themselves the way able-bodied people could. Further limiting their options, as degenerative diseases progress further, patients can lose the ability even to swallow.

What say you ATS?



~Tenth


Updated

Ruling

The Supreme Court of Canada says a law that makes it illegal for anyone to help a person commit suicide should be amended to allow doctors to help in specific situations.

The ruling only applies to competent adults with enduring, intolerable suffering who clearly consent to ending their lives.

The court has given federal and provincial governments 12 months to craft legislation to respond to the ruling; the ban on doctor-assisted suicide stands until then. If the government doesn't write a new law, the current one will be struck down.

AWESOME.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
What say you ATS?

I say, it is your life and if you want to end it that is strictly your call, not some moralist sitting somewhere else who has no idea what you are experiencing.

I say that they should absolutely do this and so should every other country on the face of this planet.

The government (regardless of who's it is) does not grant nor give life to anyone, so they should have no legal say in when one can end it for themselves.

This is an option that allows people to die with dignity without having to suffer endlessly only to reach the same result later. Anyone over the age of 18 should have this choice no matter the reason IMO. Nobody knows what another can live with. Nobody knows when another has reached their threshold and to try and judge that for someone else is the height of ignorance that requires more ego than any one person should have.

I hope Canada sees this option as one of extreme benevolence and chooses to allow people the choice that should have never been regulated in the first place. By anyone.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I certainly hope so as well. I found this wonderfully apt photo, which I edited into my OP.

It really does make you think doesn't it?

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

A picture is worth a thousand words. That picture is powerful.

One can only think that way because there really is no other reason for the government to care so much about the way you choose to die. They certainly don't care about much else when it comes to us regular folks, so why pick this to care about?

Makes you think indeed.

Damn right this should be legal. I see nothing wrong with someone wanting to end their suffering early and doctors shouldn't be held responsible for people making this decision.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

My Life.
My Death.
My Choice.

Give me liberty at my death, and allow it to be a death with dignity.

I honestly believe it's cruel to say to a person who's not only dying, but also suffering for every second of what they have left, that they're not allowed to make such decision. Let them have the choice and the dignity to go how/when they please, instead of slowly withering to a painful, ugly death.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

That may be the case, but it could also be a systemic effect of bureaucracy. Since the government is so compartmentalized, its values can become quite skewed and misplaced. It over reacts in situations that may not seem as important because it can take more ground there, but in other areas it may face difficulties getting its priorities ahead due to conflicts, paperwork and other nonsense.

I agree that people should have the choice, Sadly i have been in the situation of having to watch someone in there final days and willing there suffering to end, often thinking that we don't even allow our pets to die that way..

My fear though is i can open a whole can of worms, And possibly needs to be a case by case decision... It opens alot of questions of when in the illness do you make that choice? There has been times where people have got better, people have been given a new ground breaking drug ect ect ..

I agree it must happen but the details are far beyond just the choice, There would have to be a distinct timeline and diagnosis.

a reply to: asala

I agree it should not be a free for all. IMO, let the medical associations determine what's best practice, what diseases deserve this treatment and how to go about it the proper way.

We strangle doctors here in Canada, and if we just gave them a little more rope to work with, I think our system would be better for it. I hate watching bureaucrats make decisions about things they know nothing about.

~Tenth

www.ctvnews.ca...

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the ban on doctor-assisted death for mentally-competent patients. Now Parliament has one year to draft the legislation.

Today I am especially proud to be a Canadian.

a reply to: ArchAngel_X

You and me both Sir.

Congratulations Canada.

I've followed this subject for many years, as I hail from the doctor K state. I was a firm believer in what he stood for, and still am.

We had a local business owner here in town, that took a hard road, when diagnosed with terminal cancer. It could have been so much easier for him, and his family.

Now the US government needs to get it's head out of its butt, and do the same here.

Great news for people suffering and wanting to end there lives with dignity.

I've seen entire families get torn apart because a loved one couldn't go with dignity and comfort when it was time. Not to mention the drain on healthcare.

Its great that we are now afforded the same protection from suffering which has been allowed our pets/livestock since...forever. By the looks of the comments above, this is another one of those situations where the government has until now gotten away with blatantly doing something that its people don't want or need.

This is wonderful but came too late for my father who had to suffer a great deal while his body deteriorated over a two month period until his death. At the onset, he stated to us he wanted to go now, not ride it out; we were helpless to assist him.

This has been going on for some time. It was a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" thing. This just legitimizes the practice.

a reply to: intrepid

I wonder how common that practice actually is/was. I asked my husband, but being a pediatrician, he doesn't deal with a lot of terminally ill kids. I don't imagine a lot of kids are having that anyway.

~Tenth

This is a misleading title. The supreme Court had not approved anything. They have struck down the law banning assisted suicide. Parliament has a year to come up with new laws on the matter:

The historic, groundbreaking decision from the country’s top court sweeps away the existing law and gives Parliament a year to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable suffering — physical or mental — to seek medical help ending their lives.

m.680news.com...

Please check your facts more closely next time when reporting on such important news.