Advertisement

Assisted-suicide issue headed back to top court after B.C. ruling upholds ban

Assisted-suicide issue headed back to top court after B.C. ruling upholds ban

It was probably going there anyway, but the thorny issue of assisted suicide is headed back to the Supreme Court of Canada after the B.C. Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the prohibition against it.

There's a thin chance the high court may decline to revisit the issue, having ruled on it 20 years ago, but observers think enough has changed since then that the justices will be forced to take another look.

In a 2-1 decision, B.C.'s top court overturned a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found the ban violated Charter rights to equal treatment by preventing seriously ill people from killing themselves, which is not illegal for able-bodied Canadians.

In their ruling, two of the three B.C. Appeal Court justices declined to challenge the Supreme Court of Canada's 1993 ruling that ALS sufferer Sue Rodriguez of Victoria had no right to physician-assisted death. They accepted the top court's narrow definition of "life," in Section 7 of the Charter as essentially meaning the right to breathe rather than a measure of enjoyment of life.

The judges also noted that the high court's decision to uphold Section 241 of the Criminal Code in Rodriquez ruling fit the definition outlined in Section 1 of the Charter, which says the rights it guarantees can only be subject to reasonable limits "demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

[ Related: Will late SARS scientist Donald Low’s deathbed plea rekindle debate over assisted suicide? ]

Opponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide argue the law protects people who might be vulnerable due to mental instability or outside pressure to die.

But, crucially, the B.C. Appeal Court suggested creation of a "constitutional exemption" for people who are "clear-minded, supported in their life expectancy by medical opinion, rational and without outside influence might not undermine the intention of the legislation." They noted the four dissenting judges in the Rodriguez case backed such an exemption.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which supported the class-action constitutional challenge by a group of suffering Canadians and their families, said it would now take the case to the Supreme Court, the Globe and Mail reported.

“We are disappointed, but the Court of Appeal has effectively thrown the ball to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Grace Pastine, the association's litigation director, said in a statement.

“We will ask the Supreme Court [to] hear this case and to recognize the right to die with dignity. We will continue to argue that the government has no place at the bedside of seriously ill Canadians, denying the right to decide to those who have made firm decisions about the amount of suffering they will endure at the end of life.”

[ Related: Quebec's death legislation might fall to courts if passed, wary Ottawa says ]

The association said in its statement that the court "did not base its decision on the merits of the case. Instead, it decided that it could not reverse the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1993 decision in Rodriguez v. B.C., effectively leaving the case up the Supreme Court to sort out."

Federal politicians have been reluctant to join the debate into assisted suicide. Members of Parliament in 2010 voted down a bill proposed by the Bloc Quebecois that would have permitted the practice under strict rules.

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose said last week at a meeting with her provincial counterparts that she welcomes a discussion but the Conservative government has no intention of changing the law.

Quebec, meanwhile, is considering a legislation that would permit physician-assisted suicide as one option in end-of-life care.