Canada: Medical Aid-in-Dying

A recent story in the Toronto Star covers a ruling from a trial court judge about Canada’s Medical Aid-in-Dying law. Advocates hail judge’s decision in woman’s assisted death appeal  explains the judge’s decision: “[a] 77-year-old woman seeking medical assistance in dying has a “reasonably foreseeable” natural death, a judge declared Monday in an attempt to clear up uncertainty that left her doctor unwilling to perform the end-of-life procedure for fear of a murder charge.”  The concern in the case was the meaning of “reasonably foreseeable” and the judge held “[t]o be reasonably foreseeable, the person’s natural death doesn’t have be imminent or within a specific time frame or be the result of a terminal condition….”

The judge went on to explain

“The legislation is intended to apply to a person who is “on a trajectory toward death because he or she a) has a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability; b) is in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability; and c) is enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable and that cannot be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable,” ….