The House of Commons has given approval in principle to a bill that would make it easier for dying Canadians to get medical help to end their suffering.
Bill C-7 was passed by a vote of 246-78, with only Conservative MPs, including Leader Erin O’Toole, voting against it.
The bill would amend the law on medical assistance in dying to bring it into compliance with a Quebec court ruling last fall — a ruling Conservatives have argued should have been appealed to the Supreme Court.
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The ruling struck down a provision in the law that restricted access to assisted dying to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.
The bill would scrap reasonably foreseeable death as a requirement for an assisted death but would retain the concept to set out easier eligibility rules for those who are near death and more stringent rules for those who aren’t.
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The bill now moves on to the House of Commons justice committee for further study.
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