BR Assisted Dying Challenge – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Jun 12, 2017

OTTAWA – A court hearing begins today that will determine how long grievously ill Canadians must wait to find out if their right to a medically assisted death has been violated by the federal government’s new law.

B-C’s supreme court will hear arguments over two days on the government’s contention that the facts on which the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the ban on assisted dying two years ago don’t apply to the new federal law.

The hearing is part of a constitutional challenge to the new law, which allows only those who are already near death to enlist medical help to end their lives.

The B-C Civil Liberties Association wants the courts to block the government from arguing issues already dealt with in the Supreme Court of Canada hearing.

The new federal law that replaced legislation that was struck down allows assisted dying only for incurably ill adults whose death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

Opponents argue that denying assisted death for people with grievous medical conditions may condemn them to a life of intolerable suffering.

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SAF

(The Canadian Press)

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