Liberals should amend doctor-assisted suicide bill to respect top court ruling, Carter family says

The family of the late Kay Carter, a woman at the centre of a legal battle over doctor-assisted suicide in Canada, is calling on the Liberal government to amend Bill C-14 to lift the restrictions on what constitutes a "grievous and irremediable" illness.

BillC-14proposes torestrict medical assistance in dyingto mentally competent adults who have serious and incurable illness, disease or disability.

• Doctor-assisted dying legislation to be debated in the Commons Friday
• Doctor-assisted dying bill restricted to adults facing 'foreseeable' death
• Read the text of billC-14on medical-assisted dying

The Carter family says theLiberal's proposedlegislation does not meetthe minimum requirements laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The proposed legislationsets out safeguards to protect vulnerable Canadians, but does not include some of the most contentious recommendations from a parliamentary committee, including extending the right to die to "mature minors" and the mentally ill, and allowing advance consent for patients with degenerative disorders.

Instead, Bill C-14restricts medical assistance in dying toadults"suffering intolerably" and whose death is"reasonably foreseeable."

I am shocked that this government's proposal would exclude the very case this issue was tried on.- Lee Carter, daughter of the late Kay Carter

Lee Carter said her mom suffered fromspinal stenosis, acondition that wouldn't kill her but would leave her paralyzed.

"She did not have a terminal illness and she wasn't dying,but she was experiencing unimaginable suffering that could have lasted for many more years," saidCarter on Parliament Hill Thursday.

"But now under the proposed legislation for a medically assisted death In Canada,Kay Carter would not qualify."

"I just don't get it," said Carter. "I am shocked that this government's proposal would exclude the very case this issue was tried on."

Carter: "I just don't get it"

8 years ago

Duration 3:02

Lee Carter, the daughter of Kay Carter, reacts to the proposed physician-assisted dying legislation which she says would exclude her mother despite the Supreme Court's ruling.

'Poorly drafted, unconstitutional'

The Carters wereaccompanied byJosh Paterson from theB.C. Civil Liberties Association, the group that brought the case to the Supreme Court onbehalf of Kay Carter and Gloria Taylor, who has also died since the legal battle began.Both women had degenerative diseases and wanted the right to have a doctor help them die.

"We call on Parliament to amend this bill to ensure that it respects the Carter decision and that it does not exclude people whose death will not result from their illness," Paterson said on Thursday as he stood alongside Carter and her brother Price Carter.

It is unacceptable for this new law to say that some people should simply endure suffering because their illness isn't terminal.- Price Carter, son of the late Kay Carter

Paterson said the government should delete "the poorly drafted, unconstitutional" section of the bill that defines "a grievous and irremediable" illness.

"There are multiple other amendments that we may wishto have besides, but the key to get it to respect [the Carter decision] as opposed to broader respect for the Charter in terms mental illness and mature minorsthe key issue is in that definitionalsection of this bill. And that needsto go."

Paterson said the current bill "is worse" than what the Carter family had achieved in Carter v. Canada.

'Time for society to let people go'

"Kay Carter was my mother too," said Price Carter, who took a deep breath before addressing television cameras.

"Canadians should be angry that this legislation restricts the definition for who dies and who suffers," he said.

"It is unacceptable for this new law to say that some people should simply endure suffering because their illness isn't terminal. It is not for the government to tell them that they must be forced to go on living."

Carter family says assisted dying bill does not meet SCC requirements

8 years ago

Duration 7:54

The family at the centre of the SCC case on assisted dying weighs in on the Liberal government's assisted dying legislation.

Carter said the current legislation would condemnCanadians to "unending suffering."

"It's time for society to let people go, like my mother got to go," saidCarter with his voice breaking at times.

On Wednesday,Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defendedthe government's proposed legislation as a "responsible first step."

"I'm confident that the reflections on this issue, which are important and in my case personal, will bring us to a place where people recognize that the question isn't whether we ought to legalize medical assistance in dying, but how," Trudeau said in French.

"The step we have taken,is a responsible first step," the prime ministersaid.

The Carters are not the only ones who have raised concerns about the government's proposed legislation on medical assistance in dying.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has said though he will support the bill, the government should refer it back to the Supreme Court because there are "some shortcomings."

Liberal backbench MPs have also begun calling for some changesafter receiving feedback from their constituents.

Conservative leadership hopeful Maxime Berniersaid he's in the process of consulting his constituents before deciding how to vote.

MPs will begin debating the legislation in the House of Commons Friday.