Ottawa urged to craft new stand-alone assisted suicide law

OTTAWA – A prominent constitutional scholar says Parliament needs to design a stand-alone law on doctor-assisted death.

Peter Hogg tells a joint Commons-Senate committee that Parliament should develop a set of safeguards that would apply even where provinces have not pursued a legislative path.

WATCH: Local family reacts to supreme court decision to grant federal government 4 more months to draft legislation related to physician assisted suicide

2:23 Assisted suicide law extension

Otherwise, says Hogg, some Canadians could end up being unfairly denied the right to a physician-assisted death.

Last February, the Supreme Court recognized the right of consenting adults enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to end their lives with a doctor’s help.

READ MORE: How should doctors help people die? Canada’s competing assisted-death guidelines, explained

The court recently gave the federal government four additional months to produce a new law, but also allowed an exemption for anyone who wants to ask a judge to end their life sooner.

Over the next month, MPs and senators on the committee are expected to hear from the public, experts and stakeholders before reporting back with legislative suggestions by Feb. 26.