The latest to challenge Canada’s medically-assisted dying law are a 71-year-old woman and 49-year-old man with degenerative diseases.

(Gladu, left, and Truchon / Charles Contant / CBC)

Nicole Gladu, survived the 1949 polio epidemic before post-polio syndrome hit and caused her muscles to atrophy, and Jean Truchon, who has cerebral palsy, argue the laws are too limiting in their criteria of who can received medical help to end their lives, which goes against their charter rights.

Their lawyer, Jean-Pierre Menard, says his clients suffer from serious, irremediable problems that cause persistent, intolerable suffering.

And while that’s not enough to qualify for assisted death under the existing laws, Menard says, it does meet conditions set out in the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that ordered Ottawa to create the law.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott says the government has confidence in the law and is studying it further.