Federal government will appeal assisted-suicide ruling, justice minister says

OTTAWA – Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says the federal government will appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling which struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide.

The ruling last month granted an exemption allowing Gloria Taylor, one of the women who brought the lawsuit, to die with a doctor’s help.

The decision also gave the government a year to rewrite the law.

Nicholson says the government will seek a stay on all aspects of the ruling, including the exemption for Taylor, while it goes to the British Columbia Court of Appeal.

He says the government believes Canada’s existing Criminal Code ban on assisted suicide is constitutional.

Taylor, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, hailed the lower court’s ruling because it gives her control over when and how she dies.