Good Take On Current Canadian Assisted Suicide Issue

Here’s an interesting take on the current legal wrangles in Canada over assisted suicide.

Times have changed

In 1992, Sue Rodriguez was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease), a degenerative disease of the nervous system. She didn’t want to live once she could no longer enjoy life. Rodriguez knew by the time that happened she would be physically unable to kill herself.

She looked for a doctor who would construct a machine allowing her to commit suicide when severely disabled. But s. 241(b) of the Criminal Code says that assisting suicide, unlike suicide itself, is a crime. Any doctor who helped Rodriguez would risk jail. more