With the passing of new legislation, Canada has become one of the few nations to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The new law imposes strict requirements, however, by limiting the option to the incurably ill and requiring medical approval, a 15-day waiting period and two independent witnesses. Moreover, to obtain a request for physician-assisted suicide, a patient must: (1) be eligible for government-funded health care; (2) be a mentally competent adult over the age of 18; (3) have a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability; and (4) be in an “advanced state of irreversible decline” with enduring and intolerable suffering.
The legislation is more restrictive than some of the lawmakers had wanted. Some argued that it should be broadened to include degenerative disease, whereby patients who are suffering from incurable degenerative diseases but are not necessarily close to death would also qualify for physician-assisted suicide. Yet, others believed that such a broad criteria would push the law too far. As Justice Minister Jody Wilson explained, the requirements in the final legislation “strike the right balance between personal autonomy for those seeking access to medically assisted dying and protecting the vulnerable.”
Hofstra Bioethics 