Canada has enacted an assisted dying bill on July 2016, but its limitations to mature minors, mentally ill, and people with degenerative disorders only have citizens travel to Switzerland to end their lives. About 131 Canadians have signed up with Dignitas, a Swiss company that promotes the right to determine one's end of life.
CEO of Canadian advocacy group Dying with Dignity Canada Shanaaz Gokool told CBC News Canada that there is a significant number of people who should be covered under the euthanasia law, but aren't, thus, they ended up traveling to Dignitas in Switzerland to die. The Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Carter case is too restrictive, and that's forcing people to go abroad to die, she said.
"We would hope that with the Supreme Court decision on Carter that people wouldn't have to resort to these measures, and it's very unfortunate that people have to be separated from their friends, families, communities at their most vulnerable time in their lives, when they are having an assisted death," Gokool said.
According to the same report, a certain Monique Hamel called Dignitas for help because she did not qualify under the new Canadian law despite having a chronic neurological disorder for 20 years. "I will die with strangers who are more courageous and humane than our doctors and our decision makers," she said.
Hamel was reportedly "forced her to die far from home and loved ones" after spending over $20,000 in medical and travel costs. Dignitas stats showed that a total of 7,764 from around the globe had joined their membership program, with 201 of these individuals decided to be euthanized in Switzerland.
Many Canadians have written emails and letters and rung phone numbers of the parliament asking to amend the law and allow them to have an assisted death. Spokesman for a justice minister, David Taylor said that there would be reviews on the clamors with the report due in December 2018.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
