Canada to allow doctor-assisted suicide

Canada's Supreme Court has ruled that doctors may help patients who have severe and incurable medical conditions to die, overturning a 1993 ban. In a unanimous decision, the court said the law impinged on Canadians' rights. The case was brought by a civil rights group on behalf of two women, Kay Carter and Gloria Taylor, with degenerative diseases. Both have since died. The government now has a year to rewrite its law on assisted suicide. If it does not, the current law will be struck down. Assisted suicide is legal in several European countries and a few US states. In Canada is it illegal to counsel, aid or abet a suicide, and the offence carries up to 14 years in prison. –Courtesy BBC