BREAKING: assisted dying law goes straight to court
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- Published on Monday, 27 June 2016 09:45
- Written by editor
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Dear friends and supporters,
It is with a heavy but determined heart that we reach out to you today.
The federal government has left seriously ill Canadians with no choice but to go back to court to fight for a right they have already won. As we always have, the BCCLA will stand with them.
Today, we filed a constitutional challenge to the new assisted dying law (Bill C-14), a restrictive federal law that violates the rights of suffering Canadians.
But we can't do this without your help. Donate now, to support compassion and respect for choice.
The BCCLA launched the legal challenge with Julia Lamb, a 25 year old B.C. woman who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (“SMA”), a progressive neurodegenerative disease with no known cure or effective treatment.
Julia is free-spirited, creative, and independent. She has a fulfilling job as a fashion marketing assistant and a close network of friends and family. However, Julia experiences daily suffering. She relies on home care aides for all her daily living activities. She is in frequent pain. She has difficulty breathing. She suffers from falls and repeated broken bones on account of severe osteoporosis.
In the last couple of years, Julia has become more and more concerned about her declining health. She fears the worst possible version of her future – one where she suffers increased pain and discomfort, has difficulty breathing sufficiently well on her own, loses her independence and loses her ability to express herself.
Julia wants the peace of mind of knowing that if her suffering becomes intolerable, she will have the right to seek medical assistance in dying.
Suffering Canadians left behind
But the new assisted dying law will not give her that piece of mind. The law restricts access to medical assistance in dying to Canadians with terminal illness.
At every turn, this government has been told by leading experts that the new federal law is unconstitutional and will condemn sick and suffering Canadians to return to court.
That day has come. We need your support to make this work possible.
The BCCLA will stand with Julia, and with other sick and suffering Canadians as they return to court, but we cannot do it alone.
When we won at the Supreme Court of Canada last year, we did not anticipate that we would need to re-litigate this issue. We are spread thin.
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