A terminally ill Ontario grandfather is grateful that a court has given him the green light to have doctors help him die.
But he says it鈥檚 unfortunate he鈥檚 had to spend the last months of his life fighting to die on his own terms.
On Thursday, an Ontario Superior Court justice agreed to allow the unidentified 81-year-old have doctors help him die. That will likely take place this weekend, his lawyers said.
The man is the first patient in Ontario -- and the third in Canada outside Quebec 鈥� to seek a judicial exemption to laws banning assisted suicide, in light of a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling.
That ruling found the laws banning assisted death unconstitutional. The federal government has until June to draft new legislation. In the meantime, those seeking assisted death have to apply for exemptions
The man released a statement after the ruling, through his lawyer, Andrew Faith, thanking the court for granting his request, which neither the federal nor provincial government opposed.
鈥淭his decision allows me, with the support of caring doctors, to die with dignity. It relieves me from mental and physical pain, should I so choose, but what is really most important is that it allows me to be in control of when and how my journey will end,鈥� he wrote.
鈥淭his is a right of human dignity and I am thankful that I no longer have to live under a cloud of stigma and shame that I feel as I slowly and painfully lose control.鈥�
He added that he had had a good life and had no regrets -- except the regret that his last months had been spent fighting for the right to die.
鈥淢y wish is that our government will see fit to make permanent changes in the law so that no other family will have to do this ever again,鈥� he said.
鈥淚 believe firmly the right to die with dignity is a right that should be available to all Canadians to exercise according to their circumstances and beliefs.鈥�
The man was diagnosed in 2012 with lymphoma and is now in severe pain from his illness, his family told the court.
In his decision Thursday, Superior Court Justice Paul Perell noted the man鈥檚 circumstances met all the criteria for the exemption. Those include his being mentally competent, in extreme pain, and freely making the assisted-death request without coercion or manipulation.
The man鈥檚 lawyer said Perell seemed to struggle with his emotions as he read his decision, which detailed the suffering the man has been enduring these last months.
鈥淭he judge did seem emotional, we were all emotional. There wasn鈥檛, I don鈥檛 think, a dry eye in the room,鈥� Faith told reporters outside the court.
鈥溾� haven鈥檛 ever had an experience like that, an emotionally charged experience quite like the one I just had.鈥�
The man said in his statement that his decision about his 鈥渘ext steps鈥� would be made in private with this family.
But it is likely his doctors will follow the lethal injection protocol used in Quebec in assisted deaths. The three-step process involves sedating a patient, putting him into a deep coma, then giving him a drug that will stop his heart and breathing.
