What assisted suicide and two-tier health care have in common

Does the case for assisted suicide equal the case for private medicine? Marni Soupcoff of the Canadian Constitution Foundation says it could. She says the recent Supreme Court decision sends signals that bode well for her organization's upcoming health care case.

'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.'- Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7

Soupcoff, whose organization is supporting the plaintiffs in the health care case, says they are asking for the same considerations as assisted suicide proponents: "The patients are saying, very similarly, that they have a right to life, liberty, and security of the person that really should allow them to make decisions about their own health."Next month, B.C. Supreme Court begins hearing what's called the Cambie case, in which a private health clinic and a handful of patients are fighting the province for the right to access private health care. The case hinges on Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms— the same section that was the basis for the assisted dying decision (also known as Carter).

And she says the Court's decision to grant those rights to those who want help dying, helps set precedent that could eventually allow Canadians to pay for health care. For Soupcoff, it is all about being able to make your own decision. That decision may be to end your life, to pay for private surgery so you don't suffer while on a public waiting list, or to pay for an x-ray so to find out sooner what is ailing your child.

Suffering is another commonality in the two cases, according to Soupcoff: "we heard a lot about suffering in the assisted dying case, and there's a lot of suffering that goes on on waiting lists and for the plaintiffs in this case." One of the plaintiffs is a teenager who waited over two years for spinal surgery, and ended up paralyzed while waiting. He ended up getting his surgery outside the public system. That's the kind of suffering that the Cambie case is trying to end, says Soupcoff.

Cambie starts in March, and is expected to run through to October. If it succeeds, it will only create change in B.C. for now, but Soupcoff expects that no matter what the outcome, it will end up at the Supreme Court in Ottawa. And, in the end, it could change Canadian health care as we know it— which means 2015 just may be the year that launched two massive changes to life, and death, in this country.