Assisted-suicide ban declared unconstitutional by courts
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/06/15/bc-assisted-suicide-ruling.html
The ban on physician-assisted suicide has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of British Columbia because it denies a right to disabled people that non-disabled people have. Suicide is not illegal in Canada in and of itself, so a person who is able-bodied has the right to commit suicide. People with disabilities should therefore have the right to commit suicide if they wish, and if they need help to do it because of their disability, they have a right to that help, is what the court concluded.
The courts have given the government a year to come up with suitable legislation to cover this, but the plaintiff in the case, who has ALS, has been given an exemption so that she may have someone assist her in ending her life if she chooses to do so before the year is up.
My opinion on this: this is a situation that I think should be between the person and the medical professional they choose to assist them. Ideally I'd like it if end-of-life care was at a point where people could die peacefully and without pain, without having to decide to end their life, if if they had a terminal condition like ALS, cancer, or any other medical issue that made their life unbearable. But we're not at that point, so if this is what a person chooses, then it should be their own decision and no one else's -- definitely not the government's.
There are, of course, groups who are opposed to this being legal. Some doctors are against it because they believe their job is to preserve life, not end it. The Catholic Church is against it, but that's not surprising.
Two years ago my friend's wife died of cervical cancer. By the end of her life the cancer had spread to her bones and her brain. She was in constant, unbearable pain. She was unable to eat or drink. She had tubes delivering nutrition to her body and tubes eliminating waste from her body. I think that someone in that situation should have the choice to end their life before the disease progresses to that level.
I just saw a news report that referred to this as "The court's legalization of euthanasia." ARGH! Assuming I understand the terms correctly, euthanasia is NOT the same thing as assisted suicide.