Hitler’s army’s time in Netherlands unfortunately resulted in long held views about the value of human life and sick notions tied to global death cultists.
Thread by me.
VANCOUVER - A New Westminster, B.C., assisted-suicide foundation is headed to the B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday to renew a fight for what it calls “the right to die.”
The Farewell Foundation For The Right to Die, representing 113 members, hopes to pressure the Canadian government to adopt Switzerland’s model for assisted suicides, which does not require a presiding doctor but insists on the patient’s full consent and proof of “unbearable pain or unsustainable treatment.”
Foundation director Russel Ogden filed a civil claim against the attorney general of Canada in early February, arguing a person has the constitutional right to kill himself.
In the last two decades, other places around the world have enacted laws enabling physician-assisted suicide, including Oregon, Washington, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Switzerland, however, has been practicing its non-physician model for 21 years. Ogden said under Swiss law, assisted suicides are fully “accountable” and coroners, police and the courts are brought in after each death to ensure no foul play is involved.
Coquitlam, B.C., resident Jim Preece, 77, said he has supported the foundation since its inception in February. He said many supporters suffer from long-term diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cancers and other “rigorous” diseases. Preece added with assisted suicide, the patients end their own lives without interference.
“No doctor will be sticking a needle into your arm,” he said. “You are the person to ingest the pharmaceutical.”
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association also has a similar action in court and represents five plaintiffs, the most recent being Taylor, 63, of Kelowna, B.C.
It’s a criminal offence in Canada to assist a person’s suicide; offenders can be jailed for up to 14 years.
Both filed in February this year, the court actions come 18 years after the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal of Sue Rodriguez, a woman suffering from ALS, of obtaining a physician’s help in dying.