Analyzing the Supreme Court of Canada Case:
Carter v. Canada (Attorney General)- the Death with Dignity Case
The appellants Lee Carter, Hollis Johnson and Gloria Taylor joined with other appellants to bring the civil claim which is against the prohibition on assisted suicide found in s. 14 and s. 241 (b) of the Criminal Code (Carter, para. 20). The same issue which was brought in Rodriguez v. British Columbia 20 years ago was declared to be constitutional. In this case, ultimately Lee Carter’s appeals succeeded.
The Law Before the Ruling According to s. 14 and s. 214 (b) of the Canada Criminal Code, the law criminalized the person who aids another person to commit suicide and it banned the death inflicted on that person. In short, these provisions did not allow a person to seek a physician-assisted death, regardless of being suffered intolerably from a serious or incurable disease (Carter, para.1).
Questions Before the Court
Whether the Criminal Code provisions prohibiting physician-assisted dying found in s. 241 (b) violates the claimants’ rights to life, liberty and security (s.7) and rights to equal treatment (s. 15) of the Charter (Carter, para.29, 40).
Whether the prohibition is justified under s.1 of the Canadian Charter (Carter, para.2).
Whether the trial judge was bound by stare decisis in Rodriguez (Carter, para.28, 42).
Whether the prohibition accorded with the principle of fundamental justice (Carter, para. 70).
Whether the prohibition is rationally
However, Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code lists it a criminal offense to assist another person commit suicide. Having said, Sue Rodriguez applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to strike down Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, arguing that it infringed her rights and freedoms under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled to dismiss her application, many others in the court affirmed the judge’s decision. Furthermore, she proceeded to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, where within a few hours, the appeal too, was dismissed.
The heated case between, Carter v Canada Attorney General made many headlines across the nation, this case in particular talked about physician-assisted death which was going against the Charter rights and freedom. In other words this act was opposing the guidelines of our Charter. The Carter case began on April of 2011, how it arrived to the supreme court of Canada was a 65 year old woman named Gloria Taylor had ALS. She chose to end her life by asking a physician to help end her life, Lee Carter the daughter of Gloria and Lee husband, Hollis Johnson were also member who assisted Gloria with her death. The BCCLA field a lawsuit that physician assisted suicide was against the law. This of course created many heated arguments which was brought up to the supreme court. There were several steps before the case was heard at the Supreme Court of Canada. The process began with the supreme court of B.C which is a court at the provincial level which they hear cases related to civil or criminal. The B.C court ruled in favor of the BCCLA who filed the lawsuit against Carter by saying section 14 and section 241 (b) were a violation of the criminal code ( Prohibits aiding a person to commit suicide). After making this statement it was overturned in the British court of appeal who listen to issues concerning cost which was what they talked about for the Carter case. After the Carter case was held at the court of
At the heart of the debate of doctor assisted suicide is the supreme court trial of Carter v Canada. This was the catalyst which lead to the national legalization of assisted suicide. One of the major arguments against this law was that of the safeguards and regulations needed to protect Canadians from harm. Proponents against physician assisted suicide believe that any bill that are created for such a cause will have “inadequacy of safeguards and the potential to devalue human life” (Carter v Canada, 344). Thus, leaving those who are pro-assisted suicide require to create guidelines and protections for all parties involved with process. Allowing for there to be proper and adequate safeguards for assisted suicide is of vital importance to this law as it is these safeguards are the foundation of the assisted suicide law.
In concurrence with King, requiring professors in Christian Charter schools to refrain from wearing non-Christian articles of faith is not a reasonable infringement of Section 2(a) of the Charter. The Oakes test was conducted to deduce that the Charter infringement is not justifiable in a free and democratic society. The first step of the Oakes test is to determine if the infringement is “prescribed by law”. A common law rule or regulation, in addition to legislation can constitute a limit “prescribed by law” (Sharpe & Roach, 2013, p66).
In a more recent court decision, Carter v. Canada was a game-changer for the movement to grant Canadians the right to die with dignity. In a unanimous decision, the justices of the high court struck down on the federal prohibition on doctor-assisted dying. It was argued that the law violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Since the law regarding doctor assisted dying was created because of Carter v. Canada, the immediate and known risks associated with doctor assisted dying are being addressed and managed by establishing a strict but fair criteria for determining who can access doctor assisted dying and the safeguards that are in place to safely administer it. To meet the criteria, he/she must be a competent adult, clearly consent to the termination of life, have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, and experience enduring suffering that is intolerable in the circumstances of his or her condition. Doctors are required to use their knowledge, skill and judgement to assess an individual’s aptness for doctor assisted death, in conjunction with the above-mentioned criteria. We must recognize that within these criteria are sub-criteria’s and there are many steps to this procedure.
The Suprement Court of Canada applied the Oakes test to determine whether the infringement can be justified under s. 1 of the Charter. The SCC judges have looked on two components of the Oakes test including the rational connection and the minimal impairment. The government easily passed the rational connection test since the court clearly accepted the fact that the prohibition of assistant suicide under s.241 and s.14 of the criminal code are logically connected with the objective because the prohibitions exist in order to protect the vulnerability of life(Carter v. Canada, 2015). However, the government has failed the minimal impairment test of the Oakes test. The court considered several arguments concerning these principles. The court first considered the objective of this prohibition where the prohibition against the assistant suicide is to protect the vulnerable from ending their lives in times of weakness(Carter v. Canada, 2015).
You have asked me to summarize the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Doré v Barreau du Québec, 2012 SCC 12, SCR 395 and analyze whether the Law society is likely to sanction Evan Frank. Although the Rules of Professional Conduct place limitations on certain conduct to ensure professionalism, the expressive rights of lawyers must be given due respect and the likelihood of Mr. Frank’s sanction will depend on a fair balance of “expressive value” of the content in the letter, with the public’s expectation of professionalism.
The Canadian Medical Association defines physician-assisted death (PAD) as “[when] a physician knowingly and intentionally provides a person with the knowledge and/or means required to end their own lives…”. (A, p29) In Canada, suicide has been legal for years, but euthanasia and physician-assisted death have only recently been decriminalized in a court of law. However, until 2016, PAD can still be charged as “culpable homicide” under section 222 and 229 of the Criminal Code of Canada. (B,K) The specifics of the debate on physician-assisted death in Canada has, over the decades, not significantly changed, but instead Canadians’ opinions have been shifted since information from Belgium, Columbia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
The accused, Erin Lee MacDonald was charged for handling a firearm in a careless manner without taking erasable precautions for the safety of others and for possessing a loaded restricted firearm without having an authorization license stating he could do so. The case was on appeal from the Court of Appeal of Nova Scotia and was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014. The judgment of McLachlin C.J. and LeBel, Fish and Abella JJ. was delivered by LeBel J.
Firstly, a man's father had not received doctor assisted suicide because he did not reach requirements even though he had prostate cancer. He needed a approval from 2 healthcare providers. One of them had approved and the other denied because the healthcare worker assumed that he wasn't in distress. As time passed, 2 weeks later the man's father died in a home that cared for the sick. Furthermore, even though the man had prostate cancer and he was going to die, he could not get doctor assisted suicide because it was assumed that he was not in distress. Secondly, a person with a grievous and irremediable medical condition can only be granted to get doctor assisted suicide. A doctor in Toronto said that just because of this law only 1 out of 10 requests for medically assisted dying are granted. Additionally, the doctor had also stated that there are many reasons why a patient can not be granted doctor assisted suicide and the most common one is that their condition might not be too severe and their death may not be foreseeable. Many kill themselves because they can not bear the pain that others can not see. Thirdly, the mentally ill are not being included for doctor assisted suicide. There are many organizations that fight for this right but the main one is "Dying with Dignity". This organization argues that the bill passed by Canada called C-14 discludes the mentally ill. Additionally, this is a violation to charter of rights. People have the right to make decisions about treatment according to Ontario's Health Care Consent Act. Although, they can only make these decisions if they are capable which means if they understand the information about the treatments and the consequences of refusing the treatment. Moreover, research states that the general public and health workers do not wish that the law includes these
In common law, judges interpret the law and judge apply it based on precedent from previous cases; compared to civil law which focuses on written legislature. In Canada, judges are given the chance to be activists. If a judge believes a citizen’s rights, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are being violated, they are given the power to rule against the unconstitutional law made by the elected branches of government; this concept is referred to as judicial activism (Hausegger, Hennigar, & Riddell, 2015, p. 123). Judicial activism ensures the individual rights of each person are upheld, but the concept is controversial. Judicial activism is problematic because it awards an authoritarian level of power to unelected judges, which goes against Canada’s democratic ideology where elected officials decide and vote on the laws (Cameron, 2009, p. 27). I argue that judicial activism should not be a part of Canada’s judicial process because it gives too much power to the courts and disrupts the democratic process of
This case is the case of Rodriguez v. British Columbia in 1993. Sue Rodriguez had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; more commonly know as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 1991. Rodriguez was aware that this disease would eventually lead to her not being able to breathe on her own, move on her own, or even eat without a feeding tube. Rodriguez had the attitude that she wanted to enjoy as much of life as possible, but when the time came that she could no longer enjoy life, she wanted the assistance of a doctor to end her life. In her own words, she asked, “If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?”(Windsor Sun). In the opinion of Rodriguez, she should have the choice to end her life, and that if she could not do the act without assistance, it should be legal for a physician to help her. She ended up losing her case in a Supreme Court appeal. The decision stated, “No consensus can be found in favour of the decriminalization of assisted suicide. To the extent that there is consensus, human life must be respected.” (Windsor
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld court decisions in Washington and New York states that criminalized physician-assisted suicide on July 26, 1997.12 They found that the Constitution did not provide any “right to die,” however, they allowed individual states to govern whether or not they would prohibit or permit physician-assisted suicide. Without much intervention from the states individuals have used their right to refuse medical treatment resulting in controversial passive forms of euthanasia being used by patients to die with dignity such as choosing not to be resuscitated, stopping medication, drinking, or eating, or turning off respirators.9
However, there is immense criticism on the morality of the process, especially because the process denies a patient the right to natural death. The critics of the assisted suicide procedure argue that such a process devalues human life and tends to promote suicide as an alternative to personal suffering. By claiming that the procedure allows terminally ill patients to initiate dignity at death is flawed because the purpose of medical profession is to ensure a dignified life. According to the physicians’ code of ethics and the Hippocratic Oath, physicians are not allowed to do harm to their patients because their role is to allow a dignified health for members of the community. Consequently, legalization of Physician Assisted suicide that requires physicians to assist the patients to die is against their medical ethics. Quill, Cassel, & Meier (2010) provide that although the patients voluntarily ask the medical practitioners to assist in the process, the practitioners have a role to advise the patients against such a procedure. Besides, such a premise is bound to raise awareness of suicide as an alternative to suffering within the public domain, which may encourage such behavior among healthy members of the community that feel that they enjoy the freedom to make such a decision. On this basis, the negative moral implication of assisted suicide makes its legalization unworthy in the
Applicable cases include Rodriguez (1993), and Bodkin Adams (1957). “Since the Rodriguez case was decided, important developments in other jurisdictions appear to demonstrate that it is possible to permit physician assisted suicide under strict legal controls, and to do so without the widespread abuses feared by those who support an absolute prohibition on the practice.”