A Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judge has denied a request to shelve a lower court decision that effectively allows a man to go ahead with a medically assisted death, in spite of his wife's efforts to stop him.
The 83-year-old man from Bridgewater, N.S., was assessed by physicians and approved for medical assistance in dying (MAID) earlier this year, but his wife, Katherine, 82, filed for an injunction with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia,
forcing him to cancel his plans.
While X says he's suffering and near the end of his life because of advancedchronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), his wife says his wish to die is not based on physical illness, but anxiety and mental delusions. She has also expressed a moral opposition to MAID....
Jocelyn Downie, a Dalhousie University law professor who has been a member of multiple expert panels on MAID, said she felt "relief and gratitude" for the detailed decision Van den Eynden delivered.
"I think for everybody who's looking at this case as a precedent and trying to see what kinds of approaches are the courts going to take to these kinds of efforts to interfere with access to MAID ... it's very useful for everybody to understand the lay of the land," Downie said in an interview. While a decision in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal would not have binding authority on any courts outside the province, Downie said the decision could still set a "persuasive" precedent for other Canadian courts.