Delay law on dying
In less than three months, Canada’s long-standing criminalization of assisted suicide becomes null and void. Unless new legislation is hurriedly passed — or the Feb. 6 deadline is extended — Canadians and their doctors will be forced to make end-of-life decisions in legal limbo.
That mustn’t happen. Nor should the newly elected Liberal government rush to deliver legislation on what is, quite literally, a life-and-death issue. The only responsible option at this point is to formally ask the Supreme Court of Canada to extend the deadline for crafting a new law by several more months.
Given that parliamentary business was interrupted by the longest election campaign in modern history, and a new government has taken office facing a steep learning curve, it’s hard to imagine the court rejecting a request for more time.
The case for delay is even stronger now that both Ontario and British Columbia have signalled that a postponement would be welcome.
As reported by The Canadian Press, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake said his province is amenable to working with Ottawa over a longer period, stressing that assisted suicide legislation will require a great deal of thought: “The more time to be able to do that, the better.” Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins added that “Ontario would be very understanding if the federal government were to ask for an extension.”
Quebec has less to say on the matter because it is already well ahead of Ottawa, having crafted its own right-to-die law, set to take effect on Dec. 10. A palliative care centre in Sherbrooke announced last week that it would provide assisted suicide to terminally ill cancer patients beginning on Feb. 1.
That clinic, La Maison Aube-Lumière, isn’t working in a vacuum. Quebec’s legislation sets out strict rules, with doctors allowed to give lethal injections only to fully competent adults. Assisted suicide is limited to people in an advanced state of irreversible decline, suffering constant and unbearable pain, and who have no reasonable chance of relief. Two doctors need to sign off on the assisted death, and there’s a two-week period of reflection before lethal drugs are administered.
That’s a far cry from federal law, which deems participating in an assisted suicide a crime punishable by imprisonment. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in February that Ottawa’s existing rules amount to cruelty, condemning people who are terminally ill to “severe and intolerable suffering.” The court gave Parliament exactly one year to correct that injustice.
Quebec’s approach could well serve as a useful template for federal action — but not over the course of less than three months. An assisted suicide law has the potential to affect any adult, since no one can know what hardships the future might bring.
Such legislation must be drafted with great care, and that will require more time. It would boost public confidence in this process if the Liberal government cleared the air and asked for a deadline extension from the court, sooner rather than later.
New government should ask the Supreme Court for an extension on assisted suicide ban