Rodriguez v. British Columbia (Attorney General)
| Rodriguez v British Columbia (AG) | |
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| Hearing: May 20, 1993 Judgment: September 30, 1993 |
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| Full case name | Sue Rodriguez v The Attorney General of Canada and the Attorney General of British Columbia |
| Citations | [1993] 3 SCR 519, 107 DLR (4th) 342, 1993 CanLII 75 |
| Docket No. | 23476 |
| Prior history | On appeal from the Court of Appeal for British Columbia |
| Ruling | Appeal dismissed |
| Holding | |
| Criminal prohibition of assisted suicide does not violate the Charter. | |
| Court Membership | |
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Chief Justice: Antonio Lamer Puisne Justices: Gérard La Forest, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, John Sopinka, Charles Gonthier, Peter Cory, Beverley McLachlin, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major |
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| Reasons given | |
| Majority | Sopinka J., joined by La Forest, Gonthier, Iacobucci and Major JJ. |
| Dissent | McLachlin J., joined by L'Heureux-Dubé J |
| Dissent | Lamer C.J. |
| Dissent | Cory J. |
| Laws Applied | |
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Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s.7 Criminal Code, s.241(b) |
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Overruled by
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| Carter v Canada (AG), 2015 SCC 5 | |
Rodriguez v British Columbia (AG) [1993] 3 S.C.R. 519 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision where the prohibition of assisted suicide was challenged as contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by a terminally ill mother, Sue Rodriguez. In a 5 to 4 decision, the Court upheld the provision in the Criminal Code.
Sue Rodriguez was a 42-year-old mother whose illness amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or "Lou Gehrig's disease") was diagnosed in 1992. By 1993 it was found that she would not live more than a year, and so she began a crusade to strike down section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which made assisted suicide illegal, to the extent that it would be illegal for a terminally ill person to commit "physician-assisted" suicide.
She applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to have section 241(b) of Criminal Code struck down as it violated sections 7 (the right to "life, liberty, and security of the person), 12 (protection against "cruel and unusual punishment"), and 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (equality).
Justice Sopinka, writing for the majority, found that there was no violation of section 7. He first considered whether the prohibition on ending one's life engaged the right to security of person. He found that the prohibition had sufficient connection with the justice system by its impact on an individual's autonomy and right to life by causing physical and psychological pain.
Sopinka, however, found that the provision did not violate any principles of fundamental justice. He examined the long history of the prohibition of suicide and concludes that it reflects part of the fundamental values of society and so could not be in violation of fundamental justice.
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