Appeal Court upholds B.C. woman’s exemption from doctor-assisted suicide ban

VANCOUVER – A B.C. woman who won a personal exemption from Canada’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide will keep that right as the case makes its way through the province’s Appeal Court.

Gloria Taylor, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS, was among the plaintiffs in a landmark case that saw the B.C. Supreme Court strike down Canada’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide earlier this year.

The court suspended its decision for one year, but also granted Taylor an immediate exemption that allows her to seek doctor-assisted suicide under certain conditions.

The federal government launched an appeal and also asked the Appeal Court to overturn Taylor’s exemption, but Justice Jo-Ann Prowse has rejected that request.

In a written decision, Prowse says revoking Taylor’s exemption would cause irreparable harm to Taylor, which outweighs the federal government’s interests.

Prowse acknowledges Taylor has become a symbol in the right-to-die case, but the judge said that Taylor is also a person who shouldn’t be sacrificed for the “greater good.”