Sue Rodriguez
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Sue Rodriguez (1950-February 12, 1994) was a Canadian euthanasia advocate.
She was born in Winnipeg, with the given name Sue Shipley, and grew up in Thornhill, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.
Her first marriage was short lived.
Ms. Rodriguez, who lived in Victoria, British Columbia, was diagnosed with ALS in early 1992. She fought to have a legal right to assisted suicide; under the Criminal Code of Canada, assisted suicide is punishable by a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
She took her cause twice to the Supreme Court of Canada, but ultimately lost both battles. On September 3, 1993, the SCOC voted 5-4 against her case.
She decided to take her own life with the help of an anonymous physician. Svend Robinson, a New Democratic Party MP who had championed her cause, was also present.
A 1998 film called At the End of the Day: The Sue Rodriguez Story, with Wendy Crewson as Ms. Rodriguez, tells her story.
See also: Jack Kevorkian
External links
- CBC Archives: Sue Rodriguez and the right-to-die debate (http://archives.cbc.ca/300c.asp?id=1-69-1135)
- CBC Newsworld Flashback - 1993 (http://newsworld.cbc.ca/flashback/1993/)
- Canoe.ca - Dealing with death - Interview of Wendy Crewson about the movie (http://www.canoe.ca/TelevisionShowsS/suerodriguez_storyof.html)
- Supreme Court of Canada sends "mercy killer" to jail - the Robert Latimer case (http://www.euthanasia.com/lat.html)