{"id":19138,"date":"2015-02-06T10:54:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=19138"},"modified":"2015-02-06T10:54:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:54:49","slug":"canadas-supreme-court-strikes-down-ban-on-doctor-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2015\/02\/06\/canadas-supreme-court-strikes-down-ban-on-doctor-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Supreme Court strikes down ban on doctor-assisted suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canadian<\/a>

Todays ruling was unanimous (9-0). Canadian Supreme Court, winter 2012. Image by: Themightyquill<\/a>, Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Canada’s Highest Court issued a long-awaited ruling this morning<\/a> on the controversial issue sometimes called “the right to die”.<\/p>\n

As reported by the Canadian Press<\/a>:<\/p>\n

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously struck down the ban on providing a doctor-assisted death to mentally competent but suffering and “irremediable” patients.<\/p>\n

The historic, groundbreaking decision from the country’s top court sweeps away the existing law and gives Parliament a year to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable suffering \u2014 physical or mental \u2014 to seek medical help ending their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ruling comes with limits. As reported by CBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court of Canada says a law that makes it illegal for anyone to help a person commit suicide should be amended to allow doctors to help in specific situations.<\/p>\n

The ruling only applies to competent adults with enduring, intolerable suffering who clearly consent to ending their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s more from Global news<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s decision also confirmed that regulation over health care can be handled by both the provincial and federal government. Last year, Quebec passed its own medical aid in dying law.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the Supreme Court has looked into the issue of assisted suicide. In 1993, the top court reviewed the case of Sue Rodriguez, who suffered from ALS or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease, and wanted to end her own life. In a split decision, the court upheld the law.<\/p>\n

In the new ruling, the court found the breadth of the Charter has changed since the early 1990s. It also said the social landscape has evolved, because assisted dying is permitted in other places such as Belgium, Switzerland, and Oregon.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s case was originally brought forward by two B.C. women, who have both since died, who wished to end their illnesses with medical help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This\u00a0history of the issue in Canada<\/a>\u00a0comes from a pro assisted-death organization, Dying with Dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Highest Court issued a long-awaited ruling this morning on the controversial issue sometimes called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[15251,880,4803,6506,15250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19138"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19174,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19138\/revisions\/19174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}