Bill C-7 and MAID: Life, Death, Liberty and Equality by Ainslie Pierrynowski
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This case raises many legal, ethical and moral issues that touch on the very foundations of our society, on death and on our relationship with it.” With these words, the Superior Court of Quebec captured the underlying issues at stake in its recent decision regarding medically assisted dying (MAID). In Truchon c Procureur général du Canada, the Superior Court of Quebec held that certain aspects of the Criminal Code provisions legalizing medically assisted dying were unconstitutional. In turn, this decision prompted the federal government to introduce Bill C-7, which would make significant amendments to the law surrounding MAID. What effect will Bill C-7 have? What prompted this change to the law? To answer these questions, we must turn to the landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that marked a turning point in the debate on MAID in Canada: the 2015 case of Carter v Canada (Attorney General). Carter and Bill C-14 In
Carter, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sections 241(b) and 14 of the Criminal Code, which 9
prohibit assistance in ending one’s life, were unconstitutional. Specifically, these provisions unjustifiably infringed section 7 of the Charter. The Court determined that the legal prohibition on assisted death deprived “competent adults” who seek MAID as a result of a “grievous and irremediable medical condition that causes enduring and intolerable suffering” of their rights to liberty, life, and security of the person. Accordingly, in 2016, a bill legalizing medical assistance in dying received Royal Assent. Under the new law, an individual can only consent to MAID if she has “a have a grievous and irremediable medical condition” and her natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.” Reasonably Foreseeable Natural Death Less than three years later, however, the statute was at the centre of a consequential legal case. The applicants, Jean Truchon and Nicole Gladu, challenged the constitutionality of the requirement that one’s natural death must be reasonably foreseeable to receive MAID. Both Mr. Trunchon and Ms. Asper Centre Outlook 2021
