By Chris Shea, staff writer
On Feb. 6, 2015, Canada’s highest court struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicides for terminally ill patients who are mentally competent. They declared that the outlawing of it deprives the dignity and autonomy of the terminally ill.
The Court’s decision actually reverses a decision they made in the 1990s and gives the parliament (their version of Congress), as well as provincial leaders to draw up legislation to respond to the ruling. Until then, the current ban on doctor-assisted suicides still stands as law.
So what does this ruling mean for the United States?
With a nation and legislative body as divisive as ours, it’s tough to see legislation like that passing now.
Opponents of euthanasia believe that physician-assisted suicide is immoral and unethical to deliberately end the life of the terminally ill, or to enable another person to end their own life. They believe that legalizing euthanasia could lead to the assisted suicides of non-critical patients.
According to them, if euthanasia were legalized, insurance companies could pressure doctors to keep possible life-saving treatments away from patients in critical condition. Many religions also prohibit suicide and euthanasia, but then again, there’s the separation of church and state.
On the other hand, proponents feel it should be legalized. They believe that a person has the right to die with dignity. A terminally ill person should have the right to choose an end to their suffering.
Advocates of doctor-assisted suicide think it is wrong for the government to take a way the right to choose if one should take their life away and let them endure the pain and suffering.
They also argue that permitting euthanasia would reduce the cost of health care, which would allow for funds to be available for those who truly need the medical care.
Already in the US, the states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana allow for doctors to euthanize patients whose medical conditions have been judged as hopeless and are in extreme pain (under strict conditions, of course).
With many states and our “neighbours” to the north allowing doctors, again in strict conditions, to euthanize the terminally ill, how long will it be until the US Supreme Court hands down the same decision?