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After wrangling, Canada Parliament adopts law on assisted death

Published 2016-06-17, 04:31 p/m
© Reuters. After wrangling, Canada Parliament adopts law on assisted death

OTTAWA, June 17 (Reuters) - Canada's Parliament on Friday
adopted a law allowing medically-assisted death for the
terminally ill, brushing aside critics who wanted the
legislation to cover people with degenerative diseases.
After weeks of political wrangling, the upper Senate chamber
voted in favor of a law which makes Canada one of the few
nations where doctors can legally help sick people die.
Some Senators complained the scope of the law - initially
passed by the House of Commons elected chamber - was too narrow
and should not be restricted to those facing imminent death.
The law, drafted after Canada's Supreme Court last year
overturned a ban on physician-assisted suicide, must receive
formal approval from Governor General David Johnston, the acting
head of state. That process is a formality.
The Supreme Court ruling covered willing adults facing
intolerable physical or psychological suffering from a severe
and incurable medical condition.
The Liberal government, though, narrowed the scope of the
legislation to cover only those people whose death was
reasonably foreseeable.
Critics said this would condemn people with degenerative
conditions like multiple sclerosis to unbearable suffering.
Government officials say the new law is a first attempt to
address a highly sensitive and controversial topic and could be
broadened in years to come.

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