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1992: Victoria, B.C. resident Sue Rodriguez forces the right-to-die debate into the spotlight in Canada. As her body withers under a terminal illness she fights to overturn a law that bans assisted suicide in Canada.
December 9, 1992: Svend Robinson, a New Democratic
Party MP representing Burnaby Kingsway, British Columbia, introduces
a private member's bill, C-385 (.pdf
file) 
, entitled "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (aiding
suicide)". Mr. Robinson states that the bill's purpose is "to
allow for physician-assisted suicide upon the request of a terminally
ill person". The closing of the 34th session of Parliament
prevents this bill from coming forward for debate.
September 30, 1993: In a narrow five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court of Canada dismisses the appeal of Sue Rodriguez. The majority decision, concludes that, given the concerns about potential abuse and the great difficulty of creating appropriate safeguards, the blanket prohibition on assisted suicide is "not arbitrary or unfair" and should therefore be upheld.
February 12, 1994: Sue Rodriguez dies. Rodriguez, assisted by an unknown doctor and witnessed by New Democrat MP, Svend Robinson, commits suicide in her home in Victoria.
February, 1994: The Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide is created in Canada to examine and report upon the legal, social and ethical issues relating to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
and makes a number of recommendations concerning improvements to palliative care and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. On assisted suicide, the majority recommends no changes to Canada's Criminal Code.
1997: The state of Oregon in the Unites States enacts the Dying with Dignity Act. The act allows any adult suffering from a terminal illness, who is a resident of that state and whose diagnosed life expectancy is less than six months, to obtain a prescription for drugs to end his or her life.
April, 2002: Assisted suicide becomes law in the Netherlands. The law states that that a physician can terminate a life or assist in a suicide with due care if the patient requests it, that the procedure be carried out in a medically appropriate fashion, and that the patient's suffering be lasting and unbearable. In Switzerland, assisted suicide has long been tolerated if it is done for 'altruistic' reasons.
September, 2002: Assisted suicide becomes law in Belgium. The legislation states that the patient must request to die, the suffering must be unbearable, and the clinical course hopeless. An independent physician must be consulted, and a third physician must be brought in for non-terminal cases.
June 15, 2005: Francine Lalonde, a Bloc Quebecois MP, introduces a private member's bill, C-407 .
The measure would permit a medical practitioner or someone assisted
by a medical practitioner to aid another person to die if that person
has a terminal illness or is experiencing severe physical or mental
pain and "appears to be lucid" when he/she requests death.
December 5, 2005: Francine Lalonde's bill is scheduled to go through a second reading in the House of Commons.
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