October 22, 2009

"Some people want to eke out every second of life - - no
matter how grim - - and that is their right. But others do
not. And that is their right."

Betty Rollin, author of First, You Cry.

The Australian group Exit International was recently denied
access to a meeting room in the Vancouver Public Library.
The library claimed they were promoting suicide contrary to
Canada's Criminal Code. The group responded that they only
wanted to help terminally ill people end their lives with
dignity.

Australia's Northern Territory allows for assisted suicide.
The territory's Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (1995)
allows terminally ill patients to commit medically assisted
suicide, either by the direct involvement of a physician or
by lethal drugs.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association defends Exit
International. "Nobody is promoting or encouraging suicide
at the Vancouver Public Library," said says Jason Gratl,
Vice-President of the BCCLA. "Open and public discussion
about death and dignified means of dying may make us
squeamish, but they are not unlawful."

"In Canada, people have the right to hear information that
others may find objectionable," he added. "The library, as a
public facility, needs to provide equal and
non-discriminatory access to its facilities for
presentations of all kinds of information. If the library
won't provide space to engage in these difficult
discussions, who will?"

Assisted suicide has a number of pitfalls. Senior citizens
and disabled people must be protected from unscrupulous
caregivers who would rather dispose of them than care for
them. Troubled teenagers and those who suffer from
depression are vulnerable. They need help not assisted
suicide.

Australia's act addresses these pitfalls. Applicants must be
over the age of 18, terminally ill, and mentally competent
to make the decision. The request has to be supported by
three doctors, including a specialist who confirms that the
patient is terminally ill and there is a nine-day
cooling-off period before death can proceed.

Canada's lack of legal euthanasia means that rational
citizens who decide to exit gracefully have to travel
elsewhere. And because their physical health has declined,
friends and family must take that final voyage with them.

That's what an Alberta woman had to do. After years being
physically fit, she found herself with terminal illness;
trapped in her increasingly immobile body. After failed
suicide attempts, she decided to travel to another
jurisdiction for help. Oregon has medically-assisted suicide
laws for residents but her condition was deteriorating so
quickly that there was no time to establish residency. So,
her husband, son and daughter accompanied her to Switzerland
at considerable cost where her suffering ended.

Not only is the trek painful for the terminally ill
traveler, it is legally dangerous for the accompanying
family. Before the Alberta family started traveling they
obtained assurances that they wouldn't be charged with
assisting suicide on return to Canada. With no clear policy
in Canada, families have no guarantee that they won't be
charged under the criminal code.

Not so in Britain where the public prosecutor has given
tacit reprieve to accompanying families. The assurances
didn't come without the struggle of multiple sclerosis
sufferer Debbie Purdy. After a long-running legal battle to
get assurance that her husband would not be prosecuted if he
traveled with her to Switzerland to die, the prosecutor
finally stated that charges would not be automatic. The
effect has been a virtual amnesty; none of the 100 Britons
traveling with loved ones to Switzerland have been charged
on returning.

Canadian prosecutors could make things easier for those who
want a graceful exit by issuing public statements of
leniency. Maybe it will take a public case like Debbie
Purdy's.

Or maybe MP Francine Lalonde's proposed Bill 384 will
generate debate. Her Private Members' Bill to legalize
euthanasia and assisted suicide has been tabled in
parliament. A Facebook group of supporters has been
established called I support Bill 384/Je soutiens la loi
384.

I would rather not think of death but the thought of
intolerable life is even less appealing. If I were trapped
in a lingering death spiral in which things only got worse,
and where my existence was no longer recognizable as life, I
think I would want a graceful exit. And I would rather not
travel to make my final exit.

Meanwhile, Exit International is not giving up. They plan to
offer their presentation in Vancouver again on November 3 at
a location yet to be determined.
 

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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