Supreme Court Letter
Emily de Witte
12 Cecil Walden ridge
Kanata, ON, K2K 3C6
(613) 8523246
Emily@dewitte.ca
October 15, 2014
Supreme Court of Canada
301 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0J1 Dear Your Honour,
The argument over assisted suicide began with Sue Rodriguez in 1993. Rodriguez argued that section 241 of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms violates her constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of the person.
The Supreme Court ruled on wether to legalize assisted suicide or not and with a 54 decision, assisted suicide remained illegal. The Supreme Court refused to hear subsequent cases about this matter, until now. Gloria Taylor represented by the BC Civil Liberties Association raised the issue once again a few years ago. She interpreted
Section 7 as giving her control over her body and the decision she makes about the manner of her death. I believe the reasoning for the debate on wether to legalize assisted suicide or not stems from individual interpretation of the charter. In my opinion, the law’s against assisted suicide should remain the same, assisted suicide being illegal.
Supposed safeguards are illusory. No matter how many protocols and guidelines would be made, laws will never be able to sufficiently ensure protection of vulnerable individuals. Inadequate procedures allows more probability for and easier abuse of the vulnerable. Legalizing assisted suicide will lead to people who are not terminally ill will want to end their life through assisted suicide. In Oregon, the number of patients requesting assisted suicide has significantly increased; however the number of patients sent for psychiatric testing has decreased. If patients are not being sent for diagnostics, they could very well not be in the right state of mind to make the life altering decision of ending their own life. In 2005, over 500 Dutch citizens were killed without their consent. They were given no choice in ending their own life or did not
12 Cecil Walden ridge
Kanata, ON, K2K 3C6
(613) 8523246
Emily@dewitte.ca
October 15, 2014
Supreme Court of Canada
301 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0J1 Dear Your Honour,
The argument over assisted suicide began with Sue Rodriguez in 1993. Rodriguez argued that section 241 of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms violates her constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of the person.
The Supreme Court ruled on wether to legalize assisted suicide or not and with a 54 decision, assisted suicide remained illegal. The Supreme Court refused to hear subsequent cases about this matter, until now. Gloria Taylor represented by the BC Civil Liberties Association raised the issue once again a few years ago. She interpreted
Section 7 as giving her control over her body and the decision she makes about the manner of her death. I believe the reasoning for the debate on wether to legalize assisted suicide or not stems from individual interpretation of the charter. In my opinion, the law’s against assisted suicide should remain the same, assisted suicide being illegal.
Supposed safeguards are illusory. No matter how many protocols and guidelines would be made, laws will never be able to sufficiently ensure protection of vulnerable individuals. Inadequate procedures allows more probability for and easier abuse of the vulnerable. Legalizing assisted suicide will lead to people who are not terminally ill will want to end their life through assisted suicide. In Oregon, the number of patients requesting assisted suicide has significantly increased; however the number of patients sent for psychiatric testing has decreased. If patients are not being sent for diagnostics, they could very well not be in the right state of mind to make the life altering decision of ending their own life. In 2005, over 500 Dutch citizens were killed without their consent. They were given no choice in ending their own life or did not