Canada: judge lifts ban on assisted suicide

Churches in Canada, together with the medical professions, disability groups and campaigners for the elderly have expressed concern over a landmark ruling in British Colombia which lifts the ban on assisted suicide.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has declared Canada's laws against physician-assisted suicide unconstitutional because they discriminate against the physically disabled. In a 395-page ruling released on Friday, Justice Lynn Smith addressed the situation faced by Gloria Taylor, a woman who was one of five plaintiffs in the case seeking the legal right to doctor-assisted suicide.

Ms Taylor has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and she sought the ruling to allow her doctor to help her end her life before she becomes incapacitated. The case was fast-tracked in August because of her illness.

In her ruling, Justice Smith noted that suicide itself is not illegal, and therefore the law against assisted suicide contravenes Section 15 of the charter, which guarantees equality, because it denies physically disabled people like Taylor the same rights as able-bodied people who can take their own lives, she ruled.

"The impact of that distinction is felt particularly acutely by persons such as Ms Taylor, who are grievously and irremediably ill, physically disabled or soon to become so, mentally competent and who wish to have some control over their circumstances at the end of their lives," Smith writes.

In a preliminary statement, Bishop Richard W Smith, Archbishop of Edmonton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) said: "The Catholic position on this question is clear. Human life is a gift from God. Therefore, as taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2280, 'We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.'

"Being stewards of life also requires each of us and all society to respond to the physical, emotional and moral sufferings of people of all ages, particularly those seriously ill or handicapped. In this regard, as the Bishops of Canada stated in 2005, we stand before a fundamental option, the response to which reveals the true nature of our society's heart.

"Do we show concern for the sick, the elderly, the handicapped and vulnerable by encouraging them to commit suicide or through deliberating killing them by euthanasia?

"Or, instead, do we fashion a culture of life and love in which each person, at every moment and in all circumstances of their natural lifespan, is treasured as a gift?

"The CCCB will issue a more detailed reflection at a later date, once there has been opportunity to review the lengthy 395-page ruling. The ruling by the BC Supreme Court gives Parliament a year in which to consider the question. This will also give the CCCB opportunity to make submissions in due course."