Rodriguez Vs Bc Case Study

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The case of Rodriguez v. BC is one that recently has been revisited and become more relevant today. The fight to legalize assisted suicide began with Sue Rodriguez when she tried to gain the right to end her life via physician assisted suicide in 1993. This case brought to light not only subsection 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits assisted suicide. This is also to do with the principle of fundamental justice based on the idea that assisted suicide is wrong on both moral and legal planes and if legalized, could potentially lead to wrongdoings . The reason this case is worth analyzing would be its current prevalence today. For the past 21 years, assisted suicide has been illegal, but recently, it has been decided that a new law will be passed stating that it is legal for Canadians to participate in physician assisted suicide. For this reason, it would be interesting to reexamine exactly why the court reached the decision it did for Sue Rodriguez when 21 years later the decision would have ruled in her favour. …show more content…

Ms Rodriguez, a 42-year-old woman suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, wished to have a physician assist her in ending her life before her ALS completely incapacitated her. Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, however, makes assisted suicide a criminal offence which lead Sue Rodriguez to apply to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for an order saying that s. 241(b) was invalid under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unfortunately, the B.C. court dismissed her application. Ms. Rodriguez then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, where her defence was arguing that s. 241(b) violates sections 7, 12, and 15 of the Charter (Rodriguez Case)

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