By The Canadian Press

Senators bow to will of elected Commons, vote to pass assisted dying bill

Jun 17, 2016 | 3:26 PM

OTTAWA — Appointed senators have bowed to the will of the elected House of Commons, giving up their insistence that suffering Canadians who are not near death should have the right to seek medical help to end their lives.

Senators have voted 44-28 to accept the more restrictive approach proposed by the federal government in Bill C-14, which limits the right to assisted dying to those whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

The Senate had passed an amendment to expand the scope of the bill to include those who aren’t terminally ill but the Commons voted Thursday to reject that.

Rather than insist and bounce the bill back to the Commons once again, senators have given up and accepted the government’s version of the bill.

Independent Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal tried one last time, moving an amendment that would have seen the bill enacted — except for the near-death proviso, which would have been suspended until such time as the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality.

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That amendment was defeated by a vote of 42-28, with three abstentions.

On Thursday, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the government would accept a handful of minor amendments, but stood firm on the legislation’s central pillar: that only those near death should qualify for medical assistance in dying.

After a brief debate in the Commons, MPs voted 190-108 to accept the government’s response to the Senate amendments. Only three Liberal backbenchers voted against the government’s position, along with New Democrat, Bloc Quebecois and Green MPs and most Conservatives.

“It is crucial to keep in mind that Bill C-14 was carefully and deliberately crafted as a cohesive and balanced regime,” Wilson-Raybould told the Commons.

“The balance sought in Bill C-14 would be upset by the broadening of eligibility criteria to individuals who are not approaching death without the corresponding safeguards for these specific cases.”

Liberal backbenchers privately say Trudeau told MPs earlier this week that it would be “appropriate” for appointed senators to defer to the will of the elected Commons, and he seemed confident they would do so.

Joyal’s amendment would have replaced C-14’s restrictive eligibility criteria with the more permissive parameters set down by the top court, which directed that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting, competent adults with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions that are causing enduring suffering that they find intolerable.

C-14 would allow assisted dying only for consenting adults “in an advanced stage of irreversible decline” from a serious and “incurable” disease, illness or disability and for whom natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

Canada has been without a criminal law governing assisted dying since June 6, when the court’s ruling went into effect. Philpott said many doctors are reluctant to provide medical assistance in dying in the midst of legal uncertainty and used that argument to pressure senators to give in on the bill.

The Canadian Press

©2016 The Canadian Press