OTTAWA, April 14 (Reuters) - Canada's Liberal government on
Thursday unveiled draft legislation on doctor-assisted suicide
which would apply to adults suffering serious and incurable
illness and where death is reasonably foreseeable.
The government, though, did not adopt suggestions from a
parliamentary committee which had suggested the law should also
apply to those who suffer only from mental illness, or those who
put forward advance requests. The government proposed
independent bodies study those issues.
The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a ban on
physician-assisted suicide last year, unanimously reversing a
decision it made in 1993 and putting Canada in the company of a
handful of Western countries to make it legal.
In December, a Quebec court ruled the province can implement
Canada's first law permitting physician-assisted suicide while
the federal government decides on a framework for how to handle
the issue.