Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Carter v. Attorney General of Canada Assisted Suicide case. A legal review.

Bradley Miller who is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario has written an interesting legal review of the legal precedents related to the Carter case that will be heard by Justice Lynne Smith in British Columbia beginning on November 14.

Link to the article.

Miller's article was published by the UK Constitutional Law Group, examines the Carter case based on their Statement of Claim and the fact that to be successful the Carter case will require the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn the Rodriguez decision from 1993.

Miller concludes that if the Supreme Court of Canada overturns the Rodriguez decision and thereby legalizes assisted suicide and/or euthanasia, that the Court would likely make that decision with the expectation that Parliament would create a legal framework to protect vulnerable Canadians. He then states that the court must take into consideration that history has proven that Parliament may not be politically capable of creating a legal framework leaving Canada in a legal vacuum, without legal protections.

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