Canadian Lawyer
With the Senate passage of Bill C-7 on Wednesday night and royal assent received, Canadians now have expanded rights to medical assistance in dying (MAID).
The new legislation “was expected,” says Montreal private client lawyer Troy McEachren.
Revisions to the original MAID legislation, which dates back to 2016, were “very much expected when the legislation was introduced” following the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2015 decision in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), says McEachren.
“It’s very telling that some of the constitutional commentators correctly identified that what the government enacted in the Criminal Code was much more restrictive and did not comply with the Carter decision,” which gave Canadian adults who are mentally competent and suffering intolerably and enduringly the right to a doctor’s assistance in dying.
The pursuant legislation, though, resulted in only patients suffering from incurable illness whose natural death was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ to be eligible for a medically assisted death.
