By James Peters

Lake: BC ready with interim assisted dying regulation

Jun 6, 2016 | 9:09 AM

KAMLOOPS — Provinces have been forced to take the lead in ensuring there are some rules around assisted dying in Canada.

A Supreme Court-imposed deadline will pass Monday without the federal government passing new legislation governing assisted death.

Here in BC, the province has moved to ensure there are rules in place before a federal regulation is passed.

Health Minister Terry Lake says the province has created a regulation ensuring physicians in BC follow a set of standards put in place by the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“We worked very closely with the College of Physicians and Surgeons,” said Lake. “They have upgraded their guidelines to standards which elevates the need for their physician members to follow these standards. We’ve taken that one step further by creating a regulation which says all physicians must follow those standards.”

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But Lake says he hopes Ottawa passes a law soon.

“What we’ve done is really just an interim measure until the federal legislation is passed,” said Lake. “It’s important to have a consistent approach across the country and federal legislation would always take precedence over provincial legislation.”

“We felt that we had to have some regulation in place until the federal government finally passes the legislation,” added Lake.

Lake says the new BC regulation was communicated to physicians before the weekend.