Ophelia Benson, over at Butterflies and Wheels, got to this one before me, and there’s a really good discussiong going on over at Ophelia’s place right now. That’s where it’s happening. Go and see.

In this week’s Globe and Mail, an editorial once again supports the principle of assisted dying, and urges the Canadian government to draft a careful law enabling those who wish to end their lives to be able to receive medical assistance to do so. While this has been said before, and while it is unlikely that what one commentator calls Canada’s Puritan administration will do this, nevertheless it is good to have the point stressed once again in Canada’s “national” newspaper. It seems clear, from the editorial, that the Globe and Mail has come to the recognition that the right to die applies not only to those with terminal disease, but that assisted dying is often requested, not because of intolerable pain (though this is the usual accompaniment of such states), but because of intolerable life conditions, conditions such as, in the opinion of the suffering person, to be intolerable, and to make life no longer worth living. Kudos, though, the the Globe and Mail for recognising the need to amend Canada’s law regarding assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Make the right to die legal, with protections

Canadians want to live good, long lives. And for most people, that includes an ending-of-life that is as dignified, peaceful and comfortable as possible.

Time and again, opinion polls show a large majority of Canadians support the idea that the terminally ill should be able to decide when and how they die. They believe that competent adults in unbearable pain, suffering from an illness that will never improve, have the right to die with dignity      Read more …