Ottawa, Canada, Jun 29, 2005 / 22:00 pm
A Member of Parliament has introduced a private member’s bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in Canada.
Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde introduced bill C-407 for first reading June 15.
The bill would protect a person from being charged with homicide for assisting in the suicide of someone who is aged 18 and older, who is terminally ill or who continues to “experience severe physical or mental pain without any prospect of relief” after receiving or refusing treatment, and who has expressed their wish to die.
Lalonde says parliamentarians have a "moral obligation" to respect others' wishes to die, reported the Ottawa Sun. "The choice to die with dignity should be a right," she told the paper.