Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in Carter v Canada, which led to Canada legalizing euthanasia. Carter struck down the complete criminal prohibitions against both assisting suicide—helping a person cause their own death, such as by prescribing pills—and committing homicide with the victim’s consent, such as by giving a patient a lethal injection.
Carter overturned the Court’s earlier ruling in Rodriguez (1993) in which it had upheld the prohibition on assisting suicide. Much had changed since Rodriguez, the Court reasoned in Carter. In 1993, no Western democracy permitted medical assistance in dying (MAID). Since then, several jurisdictions legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia or both, starting with Oregon in 1994. In the Court’s view, evidence from other jurisdictions demonstrated “the efficacy of safeguards for the vulnerable.”
It’s striking to compare Oregon and Canada today ...
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