Deciding on Death Rodriguez, Carter, and Medically Assisted Dying in Canada

Examines the legality of assisted suicide in Canada.

Should people have the right to medical assistance in dying? If so, under what conditions? Deciding on Death delves into the legal and political aspects of these controversial questions.

In the early 1990s, Sue Rodriguez unsuccessfully challenged the criminalization of assisted dying. The Supreme Court of Canada subsequently reversed its position in a 2015 case brought by the family of Kay Carter, who had traveled abroad for access to an assisted death. Kent McNeil and Wayne Sumner not only analyze the landmark Rodriguez and Carter decisions but also contextualize them within legal and political history and carry the story forward to the present day.

The legalization of medically assisted dying has finally given many Canadians with incurable medical conditions that cause them intolerable suffering the ability to choose the manner and timing of their death. Over fifteen thousand people per year now pursue this option. This timely book explains how we got here and the decisions that still lie ahead.

Kent McNeil is Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. He is the author of numerous books on the rights of Indigenous peoples, including Emerging Justice? Essays on Indigenous Rights in Canada and Australia, Flawed Precedent: The St. Catherine’s Case and Aboriginal Title, and Common Law Aboriginal Title. He is an honorary member of the Indigenous Bar Association and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

Wayne Sumner is professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Abortion and Moral Theory, The Moral Foundation of Rights, Assisted Death: A Study in Ethics and Law, and Physician-Assisted Death: What Everyone Needs to Know. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.