Killing oneself is not illegal in Canada, but helping someone to commit suicide is against the law.

So Susan Griffiths, a seventy-two-year-old Canadian, went to a clinic in Zurich, Switzerland for the right to die on her own terms, with the help of a doctor, before her body could be completely taken over by multiple system atrophy.

Last Thursday, April 25, 2013, she died peacefully…with some family members by her side.

Switzerland is the only country that allows physician-assisted suicide for non-residents.

Now, with this event in the news, the debate begins again in Canada—Should our Canadian government be looking at ways to allow the terminally ill to end their suffering without the act being considered an assisted suicide under federal law?

Supporters of the current law, including many disability rights groups, say allowing assisted suicide would make things hard on the disabled. The Canadian Association for Community Living has said assisted suicide creates the impression that lives affected by disabilities are somehow less worthy.

Federal government lawyers told the B.C. court that assisted suicide creates the possibility that people with disabilities, the elderly and the terminally ill could be coerced into ending their lives or do so in moments of depression and despair.

What are your thoughts?

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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