The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has launched a constitutional challenge to a ban on assisted suicide. It is representing several plaintiffs, including Gloria Taylor, a 63-year-old woman with the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has launched a constitutional challenge to a ban on assisted suicide. It is representing several plaintiffs, including Gloria Taylor, a 63-year-old woman with the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She wants to be able to ask her doctors for help to die when she becomes too incapacitated. The case is being closely followed in Canada. The federal and BC governments and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, an intervener in the case, are opposing the challenge.

According to CBC News, Canada’s Supreme Court last considered assisted suicide in 1993, when another woman with ALS, Sue Rodriguez, petitioned for help in dying. She was refused. A few months ago, the Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die also tried to dispute the constitutionality of the ban on assisted suicide. But the case was dismissed because the plaintiffs were anonymous.  

Michael Cook
assisted suicide
Canada