title: Ethical considerations in the regulation of euthanasia and physician-assisted death in Canada.
abstract: On February 6th 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released their decision on Carter v Canada (Attorney General) to uphold a judgment from a lower court which determined that the current prohibition in Canada on physician-assisted dying violated the s. 7 [Charter of Rights and Freedoms] rights of competent adults whose medical condition causes intolerable suffering. The purpose of this piece is to briefly examine current regulations from Oregon (USA), Belgium, and the Netherlands, in which physician-assisted death and/or euthanasia is currently permitted, as well as from the province of Quebec which recently passed Bill-52, "An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care." We present ethical considerations that would be pertinent in the development of policies and regulations across Canada in light of this SCC decision: patient and provider autonomy, determining a relevant decision-making standard for practice, and explicating challenges with the SCC criteria for assisted-death eligibility with special consideration to the provision of assisted-death, and review of assisted-death cases. [It is not the goal of this paper to address all questions related to the regulation and policy development of euthanasia and assisted death in Canada, but rather to stimulate and guide the conversations in these areas for policy makers, professional bodies, and regulators.].
authors.affiliation: The Champlain Centre for Health Care Ethics, The Ottawa Hospital, 1053 Carling Avenue, Rm A117, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4E9. Electronic address: joslandry@toh.on.ca.
authors.forename: Joshua T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.affiliation: The Champlain Centre for Health Care Ethics, The Ottawa Hospital, 1053 Carling Avenue, Rm A117, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4E9; The Ottawa Hospital, 1053 Carling Avenue, Rm A117, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4E9. Electronic address: tforeman@toh.on.ca.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Foreman
authors.affiliation: The Ottawa Hospital, 1053 Carling Avenue, Rm A117, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4E9. Electronic address: mkekewich@toh.on.ca.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kekewich
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D005065:Euthanasia / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*
keywords: Assisted death; Canada; Ethics; Euthanasia; Policy development