Canada passes assisted suicide bill

The Canadian parliament has passed a controversial bill to allow medically-assisted death for terminally ill people.

The law was proposed after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on doctors helping the incurably sick to die. The legislation had already passed by the House of Commons and Friday's Senate vote means it now only needs the formality of royal assent from the governor-general to become law.

The Supreme Court’s ruling covered willing adults facing intolerable physical or psychological paid from a severe and incurable medical condition. However, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government narrowed the scope of the law to cover only those people whose death was reasonably foreseeable.

Some Canadian senators complained that the scope of the law was too narrow and that assisted suicide should not be restricted to people facing imminent death, but rather extended to people with degenerative conditions like multiple sclerosis.

“I’m obviously disappointed by the outcome, but I believe that all different viewpoints were listened to with respect,” Liberal senator James Cowan commented after the vote.

The move makes Canada one of the few countries in the world where doctors can legally help sick people die. Assisted suicide is currently legal in just a few countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Albania, Colombia and Japan. It is also legal in the US states of Washington, California, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana.