Canada Court Rules Doctors Can Help Mentally Ill Liberals Die

[Progress]

TORONTO — Canada's highest court struck down a ban on doctor-
assisted suicide for mentally competent patients with terminal
illnesses, declaring Friday that how people choose to confront
such conditions is "critical to their dignity and autonomy."

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision reverses its own decision
two decades ago and gives Parliament a year to draft new
legislation that recognizes the right of consenting adults who
are enduring intolerable suffering to seek medical help ending
their lives. The current ban on doctor-assisted suicide stands
until then.

The judgment said the ban infringes on the life, liberty and
security of individuals under Canada's constitution. It had been
illegal in Canada to counsel, aid or abet a suicide, an offense
carrying a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. "The law allows
people in this situation to request palliative sedation, refuse
artificial nutrition and hydration, or request the removal of
life-sustaining medical equipment, but denies the right to
request a physician's assistance in dying," the ruling noted.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Albania,
Colombia, Japan and in the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon,
Vermont, New Mexico and Montana. The Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg allow doctors, under strict conditions, to euthanize
patients whose medical conditions have been judged hopeless and
who are in great pain.

Lee Carter (L) embraces her husband Hollis Johnson while
speaking to journalists at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa
February 6, 2015. The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a ban
on physician-assisted suicide on Friday, unanimously reversing a
decision it made in 1993 and putting Canada in the company of a
handful of Western countries where the practice will be legal.
Carter's mother, Kay Carter, traveled to Switzerland to end her
life in 2010.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/canada-court-rules-
doctors-can-help-ill-patients-die-n301731