In 1994, Sue Rodriguez galvanized Canadians when she fought for the right to die. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS was robbing her of her life, and she wanted to end it on her own terms. Hear the story of this assisted suicide activist who took her cause all the way to the Supreme Court.
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Rewind52:59Who Owns My Life? The Story of Sue Rodriguez
From 1994: Sue Rodriguez chooses suicide
31 years ago
Duration 2:55
The woman at the centre of the right-to-die debate dies peacefully on her own terms. Retrospective piece aired on CBC-TV's Witness on Feb. 21, 1994.
In early 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a ban on medically assisted death was unconstitutional. It set a deadline for June 6 to review the issue and pass a new law. The deadline has come and gone, and with no new law in place doctors who help a patient die if they suffer from a "grievous and irremediable" illness will not be prosecuted. Back in the early 1990's assisted death made national headlines and sparked fierce and emotional debate. At the centre of the story was a Canadian woman named Sue Rodriguez.
Rodriguez had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease is degenerative and incurable and mean that you lose control of your body a bit at a time. Sue Rodriguez wanted the right to end her life on her own terms; to decide how, when, and who controlled the way she would die. And she was determined to fight for that right.
Sue Rodriguez is supported by MP Svend Robinson, 1993. (The Canadian Press) Rodriguez brought her argument all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ultimately decided she had no legal right to ask anyone to help her die. During her court battle, Sue Rodriguez became close to Svend Robinson, a member of Parliament from Burnaby, B.C. Four months after the Supreme Court decision, Robinson helped Rodriguez find a doctor willing to help her end her life. In February of 1994, just after her death, CBC Radio continued the discussion Sue Rodriguez started. The conversations reflected the complexities of the issue, and brought together a diverse group of doctors and journalists, ethicists and church leaders, authors and artists, along with those who knew Sue best: her friends.
"If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?" -- Sue Rodriguez
The CBC Radio documentary maker Karin Wells explores the issue further in her moving piece "In the Presence of a Spoon." It tells the story of Margot Bentley, a woman from B.C. who, regardless of her end of life wishes, is being kept alive. The documentary recently won an award from the Canadian Association of Journalists. It first aired on the CBC Radio program The Sunday Edition.
