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The November 2015 issue of Health Law in Canada includes the thought-provoking article “Physician-Assisted Death in Canada: As the Law Changes,”1 which considers issues that will arise with the implementation of physician-assisted dying. The authors focus on some of the unanswered questions raised by the Supreme Court decision in Carter v. Canada2 and Quebec’s Bill 52, An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care: questions about capacity, subjective suffering, and the potential for medical liability in the provision of physician-assisted death going forward.
The article’s release coincides with major recent developments in the area of physician-assisted death. As Heather Hogan blogged last week, the Quebec Superior Court has recently granted an injunction to postpone the implementation of Quebec’s An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care until at least February.
And on December 3, the federal government filed a request that the Supreme Court grant it a 6 month extension of time for the reading down of the Criminal Code’s prohibition of physician-assisted suicide. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Carter, that reading down is set to take effect on February 6, 2015.
Congratulations to our colleagues Mark Handelman and Heather Hogan, and former summer student Madeeha Hashmi, for their valuable contribution to a complex and developing area of law.
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1. (2015) 36:2 Health Law in Canada 46.
2. 2015 SCC 5, [2015] 1 S.C.R. 331.
