verywhere that assisted suicide has been legalized, critics have warned that, however tight the initial restrictions limiting the use of this so-called process may at first be, its legalization could become the beginning of a slippery slope. Canada was not the first country to legalize assisted suicide. But Canada is presently the poster child for what the slippery slope looks like. Although Canada’s Criminal Code, which governs this procedure, originally required two witnesses to the application it was subsequently amended to require only one. For those who are curious as to where the slippery slope can ultimately lead, a recent case has spelled this out quite clearly: it leads to a criminal investigation.
The term assisted suicide is an oxymoron. Unless one dies of illness, old age, or accident, there are only two ways by which a life may be ended, both of which are defined by agency. If one dies by one’s own hand, then it is a suicide; if by the hand of another, then it is a homicide. But reality is not that simple. Since the assisted suicide process in its various forms was introduced, both the morality and legality of the matter turn on one thing: the patient’s consent. The public is divided on the morality of the process, but the one thing that the public and the law are not divided about is the issue of consent. Everything depends on the patient’s desire and ability to give consent. That is the issue at the heart of the criminal investigation.
Brigitte Stegemann — affectionately known by her family as “GG” — was an eighty-three-year-old grandmother from a devout Christian family. For twelve years, her namesake granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, was GG’s medical advocate and also had Power of Attorney. For the last two years of her life, GG was a resident of a nursing home in the town of Belleville, Ontario. Towards the end of her life, she had some issues in understanding what people were saying to her, in part because she was deaf in one ear as well as partially deaf in the other, and also due to cognitive decline. But her granddaughter Brigitte was always capable of clearly communicating with her even through a medical mask. Therefore, during the two years that GG had been a resident of the home, staff had constantly consulted with her on all matters of care. About five months before her death, GG was diagnosed with terminal stage-four stomach cancer. The possibility of assisted suicide was then raised with Brigitte present, and it was determined that GG did not want to go that route due to her Christian faith.
