24 - Canada’s Euthanasia Legislation

Summary

This chapter criticises the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter case, which established a right to voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. It identifies four key flaws: the court's misunderstanding of the principle of the sanctity of life, and of the purposes of the laws against assisting suicide and homicide; its evasion of the logical slippery slope argument, and its endorsement of the erroneous conclusion of the trial judge that the empirical evidence from jurisdictions with relaxed laws shows that effective safeguards against abuse are feasible.