Should terminally ill patients have a legal right to therapeutic homicide?  An editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal is urging Canadians to have this discussion.

The editorial follows a recent report by a Quebec government commission, which recommends that some dying patients have the right, under strict conditions, to request medical help to die.

The Dying with Dignity commission says Crown prosecutors in Quebec should not charge a doctor who has helped a terminally ill patient to die.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Canada under the Criminal Code.

On June 15th, a B-C Supreme Court judge struck down laws banning doctor-assisted suicide as unconstitutional, but suspended the ruling for a year to give Parliament time to draft new legislation.