For the first time since assisted death was legalized in Canada in 2016, a judge has ordered that a request for medical help in dying be put on hold.
A Nova Scotia man wants to die because of a lung disease that he says has left him near the end of his life. Katherine, his wife of 48 years, is fighting that wish in the courts, calling her husband a hypochondriac who is not mentally capable of making the decision to end his life.
“He’s being pushed by his own mind to want to end his life. It’s a suicidal frame of mind,” she told CTV News in an interview near her home in Bridgewater, N.S…
Katherine says her husband first applied for medically-assisted death in April and was turned down, because some assessors felt he did not have the mental capacity to make that decision or that his death was not imminent.
While assisted dying has been legal in Canada for four years, there are strict criteria that have to be followed, including the person requesting it being of sound mind.
Katherine says the initial rejection came as a relief to her. Although she knew her husband was talking about ending his life, she felt he was operating under anxiety and delusions.
In July a new and different group of assessors approved the man for assisted death – setting the date for August 3, which prompted Katherine to contact a lawyer and get an injunction to put her husband’s death on hold…
Read more at CTV News…