Canada's high court gave parliament another four months to rewrite the law in order to allow doctors to help gravely ill patients die upon request.

‘Canada's high court has now given parliament another four months to rewrite the law in order to allow doctors to help gravely ill patients die upon request.’

But a new Liberal government won an October 2015 general election and asked for a further six-month delay. The court said, "Granting the further extension is an 'extraordinary step', since its effect is to maintain an unconstitutional law." 




However, the court also agreed to a few exemptions that would allow some patients to proceed now with assisted suicide, notably in Quebec province, which rolled out Canada's first assisted dying framework last month.
On Thursday, January 14, 2016, local media reported that two people in Quebec had already asked for help dying.
One of them was approved and died in hospital. Health officials are still considering the second request.
Elsewhere in Canada, until June 2016 when the injunction is set to expire, a patient may seek permission from a judge to proceed.
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At that time, the court had expressed concern about protecting vulnerable persons, but in its newer ruling in 2015 pointed to changed Canadian social values.
Source-AFP