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After fighting the government in court for more than two years, Nicole Gladu and Jean Truchon have earned the right to die on their own terms.

Gladu and Truchon are ill and their health will never improve. They are trapped in bodies whose functions deteriorate every day. Gladu’s spine is twisted, she’s bound to a wheelchair and she only has the use of her right arm.

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Truchon moves with the aid of an electric wheelchair controlled by his mouth and he struggles to speak clearly. Over time, their illness will kill them, but because that death may not be imminent, neither was eligible for medical assistance in dying under provincial and federal law.

That was the case until Wednesday’s Superior Court ruling demanding that the Criminal Code be amended to remove the requirement of “imminent death” be met for a person to be eligible for doctor-assisted death.

During an emotional address at her lawyer’s office Thursday, Truchon said the court’s decision “opened the gates of heaven” to him. Speaking with the aid of a close friend, he said he wanted to see one last winter and spring before deciding when to die.