This news is a couple weeks old now, but it’s good news and it needs sharing.
The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down the ban on doctor -assisted suicide for mentally competent people suffering from terminal illnesses, saying that the current rules violate our Charter of Rights. Not only did the court kill it, it did so unanimously, which comes as a pleasant shock. The government now has a year to draft a new law to reflect the new rules. I’m a little nervous that the Conservatives are likely going to be the ones to write it given the timing, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, let’s enjoy the end of one of those controversies that shouldn’t be a controversy.
I’ve said it before, but to me, this has always been an issue that boils down to two basic points.
1. Until you’ve survived your own long, drawn out, agonizing, irreversible death, you have no right to tell anyone else what to do.
2. A thing being legal does not force you to do that thing. Smoking is legal, but I don’t smoke. Why? I don’t want to. If the day should come that you’re in the unfortunate position to walk in the shoes of those who wish to die, you’ll be afforded that same freedom of choice.
One other thing has always bothered me about the anti right to die crowd. The type of person who tends to be against it is the same one who shows up at every funeral and keeps telling you that your loved one is “in a better place now.” Well then, if that place is so much better, why are you fighting so hard to keep him in *this* place against his will? What a selfish jerk you turned out to be. I figured that out when I was like 14, so why is it such a difficult concept? Then again I’m the type of guy who generally takes religion out of equations and replaces it with logic and common sense, so maybe I just answered my own question.