bigstory.ap.org

Assisted dying about to be legal in Canada

TORONTO (AP) — Doctor-assisted dying is about to become legal in Canada without clear legislation on how it would work.

Canada's Supreme Court last year struck down laws that bar doctors from helping someone critically ill die, but put the ruling on hold until midnight Monday to give the government time to come up with a new law. The House of Commons passed a law last week but it requires Senate approval and that could take days or weeks.

Provincial regulators issued guidelines based on the eligibility outlined by the Supreme Court but Health Minister Jane Philpott said Monday the guidelines do not provide enough clarity and protection to doctors. She hopes the federal legislation will pass soon.

"Doctors may have inadequate protection and I expect in these early days, many physicians will be extremely reluctant to provide assistance to patients wanting medical assistance in dying," Philpott told health care professionals in a speech in Ottawa. Philpott noted the guidelines vary from province to province and doctors lack standard criteria for who is eligible.

"Some of the regulatory recommendations talk about an age of 18 or over and some don't. There are differences in how many witnesses are required. In some cases it is one, others two," she said.

Philpott offered no advice to fellow doctors on whether to proceed with physician-assisted dying without legislation in place. She said they should contact their professional associations for advice.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Albania, Colombia, Japan and the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana. California lawmakers also passed legislation, expected to take effect in June, where proof of state residency will be required.

Canada's Supreme Court ruling means a doctor can't be prosecuted for assisting death for those with a "grievous and irremediable" illness. The government's proposed law applies to "adults who are suffering intolerably and for whom death is reasonably foreseeable." It says the person must be mentally competent, 18 or older, have a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability and be in an advanced state of irreversible decline of capability.

The proposed Canadian law applies only to citizens and residents, meaning Americans won't be able to travel to Canada to die. To get a doctor's help under Canada's proposed law, written request is required either from the patient or a designated person if the patient is incapable. The request would need to be signed by two independent witnesses. Two independent physicians or authorized nurse practitioners would have to evaluate it, and there would be a mandatory 15-day waiting period unless death or loss of capacity to consent was imminent.

Some groups have said the law doesn't go far enough and have noted law excludes people who have received a diagnosis of dementia or Parkinson's from making a request in advance for assisted suicide

Before the Supreme Court decision last year, it had been illegal in Canada to counsel, aid or abet a suicide, an offense carrying a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. But the top court said doctors are capable of assessing the competence of patients to consent, and found there is no evidence that the elderly or people with disabilities are vulnerable to being talked into ending their lives.

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And they have free healthcare, too!

Well, remember, no one has FREE health care.

ACA...

It's cheaper to put "ol' yeller" down,
than it is to cure his cold.



Say hello to Logan's Run.

Perhaps those who are so against this should take time to meet and talk to people like these:

http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/personal-stories/

I am 100% for having the right to end my own life, and have always felt this way. Who the hell is the government to tell me I can't choose when and how to die, assuming I don't cause material harm to others by doing so?



But I find it scary as hell to think that of all of the ways it this can be abused, particularly when dealing with people are easily confused, suffer extreme bouts of depression, etc.

What about the health care workers helping your grandma, who'd rather she just kicked off? Of the hospital administrators who think your wife is costing the hospital too much money? It doesn't seem possible to ensure that no health care worker ever has a financial incentive to encourage someone to choose suicide; and that's frightening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_Switzerland

Switzerland has legislatively permitted assisted suicide since 1942. For example, lethal drugs may be prescribed as long as the recipient takes an active role in the drug administration. Euthanasia (such as administering a lethal injection) is not legal [1] and the law does require a physician to be involved. It does not require the recipient to be a Swiss national. This latter aspect of the law is unique in the world, and the nation has come to be known for the phenomenon of "suicide tourism".[1]

Legislation

The legality of assisted suicide is a result of article 115 of the Swiss Criminal Code, in effect since 1942, which provides:

"Inciting and assisting suicide: Any person who for selfish motives incites or assists another to commit or attempt to commit suicide shall, if that other person thereafter commits or attempts to commit suicide, be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding five years or to a monetary penalty."

Consequently, assisting suicide is a crime only if the motive for doing so is selfish,[1] such as personal gain.

When an assisted suicide is declared, a police inquiry may be started. Since no crime has been committed in the absence of a selfish motive, these are mostly open and shut cases. Prosecution can occur if doubts are raised about the patient's competence to make an autonomous choice, or about the motivation of anyone involved in assisting the suicide.

Article 115 was interpreted as legal permission to set up organizations administering life-ending medicine only in the 1980s, 40 years after its coming into effect.
Role of physicians in assisted suicide

Article 115 does not give physicians a special status in assisting suicide, although they are most likely to have access to suitable drugs. Ethical guidelines have cautioned physicians against prescribing lethal drugs. However, the guidelines also recognize that, in exceptional and clearly defined cases, physicians may justifiably assist suicide.[citation needed] Based on more recent ethical, juridical and medical statements, a prescription of Sodium-Pentobarbital is not necessarily contra-indicated, and thus is no longer generally a violation of medical duty of care.
Assisted suicide and mental illness

Evaluating a wish for assisted suicide requires distinguishing between a wish to die that reflects a curable psychic distortion, which calls for treatment, and a wish that is based on a self-determined, carefully considered and lasting decision made by a lucid person, which possibly needs to be respected. In the latter case, under certain circumstances even a mentally ill person may be granted help to commit suicide.[citation needed] Whether the prerequisites for this are satisfied it cannot be evaluated separately from a medical specialist knowledge– especially psychiatric – and proves to be difficult in practice. Therefore, the appropriate assessment requires the presentation of a special in-depth psychiatric opinion.[citation needed] In an essay in the Hastings Center Report, bioethicist Jacob M. Appel advocated adopting similar rules in the United States.[2]
Active euthanasia

All forms of active euthanasia like administering lethal injection remain prohibited in Switzerland. Swiss law only allows providing means to commit suicide, and reasons for doing so must be altruistic.[3]
Debate

Recent debate in Switzerland has focused on assisted suicide rights for the mentally ill. A decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on November 3, 2006, laid out standards under which psychiatric patients might terminate their lives: “It cannot be denied that an incurable, long-lasting, severe mental impairment similar to a somatic one can create a suffering out of which a patient would find his/her life in the long run not worth living anymore."[citation needed]

Euthanasia organisations have been widely used by foreigners,[4] most notably Germans, in what critics have termed suicide tourism. Around half of the people helped to die by the organisation Dignitas[5] have been Germans.

In July 2009, British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died together at a suicide clinic outside Zürich "under circumstances of their own choosing." Sir Edward was not terminally ill, but his wife was diagnosed with rapidly developing cancer.[4]
Referendum

In a referendum on 15 May 2011, voters in the Canton of Zurich have overwhelmingly rejected calls to ban assisted suicide or to outlaw the practice for non-residents. Out of more than 278,000 ballots cast, the initiative to ban assisted suicide was rejected by 85 per cent of voters and the initiative to outlaw it for foreigners was turned down by 78 per cent.[6][7][8][9]

Great! Now I know where to go if I ever want to escape the tyranny of state enforced existence! :)