Debatable Issues and Moral Questions

DEBATABLE ISSUES AND MORAL QUESTIONS
Sheri Smith
May 4, 2016

February 6, 2015 was supposed to be a monumental marker in the world of physician assisted suicide. In a unanimous decision, the federal law preventing a doctor from assisting a patient in ending her life was struck down because it violated her rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canadian lawmakers were given one year to draft new legislation governing the acceptable requirements, but when the new legislation was introduced, there were more questions than answers regarding who would be eligible for assisted suicide. References to "reasonable foreseeable death", and "intolerable suffering", have left many in the medical field baffled as to what measure determines each of these classifications. What, for instance, is considered "reasonable" when contemplating foreseeable death? Who will decide what degree of suffering is considered "intolerable"? And for people suffering from debilitating and irreversible conditions that will cause long-term suffering, yet an unforeseeable expiration date, is the legislation going to allow for them to choose their own compassionate end?

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