Assisted death bill up for third reading today before heading to Senate

OTTAWA – The Trudeau government’s controversial assisted dying bill is expected to receive third and final reading today in the Commons, before heading to the Senate.

MPs voted Monday night on an array of amendments to bill C-14, though all proposed changes were rejected.

The bill cleared report stage by a vote of 192-to-129.

With just one week to go, the government is acknowledging that it may not be able to meet the Supreme Court’s June 6 deadline for passing a law to govern medically assisted death.

Health Minister Jane Philpott says the government now risks missing next week’s court-imposed deadline.

In February 2015, the high court recognized the right of consenting adults enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to end their lives with a doctor’s help.

Bill C-14 has touched off a deafening chorus of disappointment from a multitude of constitutional experts, medical professionals and human-rights advocates.

The critics have noted that not even Kay Carter – the 89-year-old B.C. woman at the centre of the case that gave rise to the Supreme Court decision – would have qualified for an assisted death under the proposed law.