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Tsawwassen woman added to legal challenge

Civil Liberties Association fighting for right to die with dignity
moro
Robyn Moro, a 68-year-old from Tsawwassen, was added this week by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) as a new plaintiff to its legal challenge to Canada’s assisted dying legislation.

Robyn Moro is trying desperately to find peace.

Moro suffers from Parkinson’s and is seeking immediate access to a medically assisted death due to her intolerable and unalleviated suffering.

The 68-year-old from Tsawwassen was added this week by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) as a new plaintiff to its legal challenge to Canada’s assisted dying legislation.

Moro was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013 just months after her retirement. Her dreams of an active future spent travelling the world with her husband of 50 years quickly became impossible. Now, most of her days are spent in severe pain. Her body shakes constantly with tremors. She has chronic nausea and vomiting, muscle freezing and exhaustion.

She said she can no longer tolerate her existence.

“I have so much pain every day, and I know my Parkinson’s will only continue to get worse,” Moro said. “I know what my future holds and I don’t want to endure it. I want to be able to die peacefully, with my family by my side. Although we love each other dearly, my husband and family don’t want to see me suffer anymore. They support my choice. It’s the law that is forcing me to suffer.”

Prior to her diagnosis Moro was an independent, active grandmother who enjoyed spending time with her four grandchildren. She loved the outdoors, boating and camping. She and her husband would often host friends and family in their home. She no longer has the energy for these activities, relying on her husband for help with nearly every aspect of life.

In 2015 the BCCLA won a landmark decision in Carter v. Canada when the Supreme Court of Canada held that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting and competent adults who have a “grievous and irremediable” medical condition that causes them enduring and intolerable suffering.

The federal government responded to the Carter decision by adding a further requirement: a person’s natural death must be reasonably foreseeable before they can access medical assistance in dying.

Ten days after the government’s new legislation came into force, the BCCLA launched the Lamb v. Canada case, challenging the constitutionality of the “reasonably foreseeable death” requirement.

Julia Lamb is a 25-year-old from Chilliwack suffering from spinal muscular atrophy.

When the BCCLA launched her case it received 80 inquires from those seeking to join the legal challenge, including Moro.

Jay Aubrey, counsel for the BCCLA, said she worries the current legislation places critically ill Canadians in an impossible position.

“People who experience horrific, irremediable suffering, but whose death is not yet reasonably foreseeable, are left with two choices — to continue to suffer intolerably against their will or to turn to non-medical ways of ending their life, such as starvation and dehydration,” Aubrey said. “This is a cruel choice. Surely we have more compassion than to leave people to suffer and die in this way.”

Aubrey said she feels confident that Moro will be added to the Lamb legal challenge.

“It is the same case that we litigated a few years ago in the Carter case and the Supreme Court was very clear what was constitutional and what was unconstitutional when it came to medically assisted death — they were basing that decision on people with conditions like Robyn’s, like Julia’s,” said Aubrey.

“It seems really obvious to us that the current legislation is unconstitutional. Hopefully it won’t take us a few years to prove that again. We have already lost people to really awful non-medical deaths like dehydration and starvation and Robyn has been clear that would be her way out if the law doesn’t help her. We don’t want to see that.”