Appeal Court rules B.C. woman at centre of right-to-die case can still have assisted suicide

Gloria Taylor probably knew her battle for the right to physician-assisted suicide was going to be long. Now she also has the comfort of knowing her personal exit strategy won't be compromised by a legal fight that may eventually end up in the Supreme Court of Canada.

It was under threat after the federal government appealed an earlier B.C. Supreme Court decision in her case, The Canadian Press reported. However, on Friday, the B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld last June's decision to give Taylor, of Westbank, B.C., exemption from the law prohibiting doctor-assisted suicides.

Taylor suffers from ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a progressive muscle weakness that steadily imprisons victims inside their bodies before they eventually die.

The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in June that the law against physician-assisted suicide was unconstitutional because it violated Taylor's rights to liberty and security of the person.

Justice Lynn Smith suspended her decision for a year to give the Conservative government time to rewrite the law, meaning the ban remains in effect for now. But Taylor was given a special exemption to have a doctor-assisted death, if she chose to do so within that year.

[ Related video: Taylor on decision to strike down doctor-assisted suicide ]

B.C. Appeal Court Justice Jo-Ann Prowse rejected Ottawa's request to overturn Taylor's exemption while the lower court ruling was under appeal. Revoking it, the judge said, would cause Taylor irreparable harm, which outweighs Ottawa's interests.

Taylor has become a symbol in the right-to-die fight, Prowse conceded, but she is also a person who shouldn't be sacrificed for the "greater good," The Canadian Press reported.

Prowse found that if the exemption was revoked, Taylor would suffer loss of the peace of mind she now has, the Vancouver Province said.

"In the result, and not without some hesitation, I conclude that the balance of convenience favours refusing a stay," Prowse concluded.

Taylor's lawyer, Sheila Tucker, said her client was "delighted" with the outcome.

"We're very pleased that the court recognized how important it is to Gloria, and how from her perspective it's a right that is only meaningful if she has it at this time," she said, according to the Province.

The Appeal Court meanwhile will be hearing arguments in the federal government's challenge to Smith's original ruling striking down the law.

The case comes 20 years after another B.C. resident, Sue Rodriguez of Victoria, unsuccessfully challenged the law against assisted suicide.

Rodriguez also suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and asked the Supreme Court of Canada to be allowed to have a doctor help her kill herself.

"If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?" she asked in a videotaped statement appealing to MPs to change the law.

The high court rejected her argument in a 5-4 decision in 1993, saying society's obligation to preserve life and protect the vulnerable outweighed her rights, CBC News reported.

But in the close decision some of the judges suggested the law might need to be changed to deal with cases such as Rodriguez's. A doctor who was never identified helped Rodriguez to end her life in 1994.

Opponents of doctor-assisted suicide argue it opens the door to abuse, pressuring the old and infirm into consenting to euthanasia.

CBC News noted the first Canadian to face a jury trial for assisting a suicide was acquitted. A Quebec jury found Stephan Dufour not guilty in 2008 after he admitted setting up a rope, chain and dog collar that his uncle used to hang himself in a closet in 2006.

Assisted suicide and active euthanasia have been officially legal in the Netherlands since 2002, but were condoned by the courts since 1984, and Belgium legalized the practices a decade ago. Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1941 but bans euthanasia, CBC News noted, while Luxembourg passed a law similar to the Dutch one in 2009.

In North America, Oregon has allowed physician-assisted suicide since 1997 and it weathered a federal government legal challenge in 2006.