Stockwell Day on "activist court" and doctor-assisted suicide
Stockwell Day says he wishes the Supreme Court of Canada hadn't ruled in favour of doctor-assisted suicide on Friday. But now that the ban on assisted suicides has been struck down, Day wants his former Conservative government colleagues to draft legislation that severely restricts the end-of-life option....
Stockwell Day says he wishes the Supreme Court of Canada hadn't ruled in favour of doctor-assisted suicide on Friday. But now that the ban on assisted suicides has been struck down, Day wants his former Conservative government colleagues to draft legislation that severely restricts the end-of-life option.
"I personally think this is an activist court... In their own words, in their own ruling they talk about the mood of society and about how trends change. I do not believe it's the place of a court, certainly a Supreme Court, to be reflecting on polling trends. That's for politicians to grapple with. The elected people," says Day.
In a recent poll, 84% of Canadians surveyed said they agree that "a doctor should be able to help someone end their life if the person is a competent adult who is terminally ill, suffering unbearably and repeatedly asks for assistance to die."
Friday's court ruling says physician-assisted suicide will be limited to consenting, competent adults with enduring, intolerable suffering.
But Day feels that ruling is not clear enough. "A key [question] that nobody seems to want to address is the aspect of the right of a mentally anguished teen who no longer wants to live. Does that person have the right to call for an assisted-suicide."
The Supreme Court ruling specifically applies to adults, but Day says the age of majority across Canada is 18 or 19 years of age. He says they are teenagers who are also considered adults.
"It is not clear at all. And because it's not clear, and this has been the experience in The Netherlands, it's been the experience in other jurisdictions, because there's a lack of clarity and nobody seems to have the fortitude to define it... there can be cases when an adult, albeit a teenager, can actually make the case for an assisted suicide," says Day.