The Canadian Government rethinks the assisted suicide law

Publié le 17 Nov, 2015

On 6 February 2015, the Canadian Supreme Court declared that “the refusal to offer medically assisted dying to a consenting person was unconstitutional”. It “suspended the invalidity of certain laws [Penal Code] banning assisted suicide and gave Ottawa one year to rewrite relevant legislation in order to give people with serious, incurable health problems access to medically assisted dying”.

 

The Government is currently working on rewording the law to make it conform as quickly as possible with the Court rulings[1]. With just three months left to run until the deadline issued by the Supreme Court, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has stated that she will discuss “possibly extending the deadline” with the Health Minister.

 

 

   [1]In amending the Criminal Code, the Canadian Government is acting in the wake of Quebec which recently authorised euthanasia with law 52, heading towards authorised assisted suicide(Cf. Gènéthique du 10 juin 2014 et 23 octobre 2015).

TVA Nouvelles (16/11/2015)

Share this post

For further