Canada to legalize physician-assisted dying

By Muniini K. Mulera

Canada

April 15, 2016Edited by Admin

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Prompted by a  Supreme Court decision,  the Government of Canada has tabled Bill C-14 for the purpose of legalizing physician assisted dying.The bill allows  people who have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability, and whose death is "reasonably foreseeable", to end their lives with the assistance of their doctor or nurse practitioner.

Federal Parliament, Ottawa, Canada

The Summary of the Bill states: This enactment amends the Criminal Code to, among other things, (a) create exemptions from the offences of culpable homicide, of aiding suicide and of administering a noxious thing, in order to permit medical practitioners and nurse practitioners to provide medical assistance in dying and to permit pharmacists and other persons to assist in the process; (b) specify the eligibility criteria and the safeguards that must be respected before medical assistance in dying may be provided to a person; (c) require that medical practitioners and nurse practitioners who receive requests for, and pharmacists who dispense substances in connection with the provision of, medical assistance in dying provide information for the purpose of permitting the monitoring of medical assistance in dying, and authorize the Minister of Health to make regulations respecting that information; and (d) create new offences for failing to comply with the safeguards, for forging or destroying documents related to medical assistance in dying, for failing to provide the required information and for contravening the regulations. Here is a brief report of how it is done in the Province of Quebec. The full Bill is accessible via the link in the first paragraph (above). What are your thoughts on this complex issue?