After five months of glacial inaction in response to the Supreme Court of Canada’s one-year deadline to establish protocols and guidelines for physician-assisted suicide, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has appointed a three-member panel to canvas Canadian opinion on facilitated final exits.

But two of the three members of the panels were interveners for the federal government during the Supreme Court hearing in in Carter et al. v. Attorney General of Canada and have been “among the most vocal opponents of physician-assisted dying in Canada,” so the exercise is “neither fair nor non-partisan,” charges Dying with Dignity Canada CEO Wanda Morris.

The appointment of both University of Manitoba professor of psychiatry Harvey Chochinov and retired Ryerson professor of disability studies, research and education Catherine Frazee is an indication that the Conservative government “is trying to bury this,” Morris says. “They could have appointed a fair and balanced panel to consult with Canadians. I’m deeply concerned about the composition of the panel.”

Similarly, BC Civil Liberties Association executive-director Josh Paterson notes in a press release that “we hoped for a balance of views on the panel but we are deeply concerned that this panel composition is not impartial. Two of the three people on this panel were federal witnesses opposed to physician-assisted dying during the Carter v. Canada case. They have publicly argued to uphold the laws that criminalize physician assistance in dying. While these individuals are well-respected people, there is an appearance of bias.”

The panel, to be chaired by Chochinov, will undertake a series of regional roundtables and online consultations, ostensibly with an eye toward recommending the conditions under which medical-aid-in-dying should be permitted.

“The panel’s mandate is to consult with Canadians and key stakeholders — with a focus on the interveners in the Supreme Court case, who represent a spectrum of diverse perspectives — on considerations relevant to a federal legislative response to the Carter decision. The Panel will provide a final report to the Ministers of Justice and Health that outlines its findings and options for a legislative response for consideration by the Government. The panel will provide its report to the Government by late Fall 2015,” the government states in a press release.

But Morris charges that the five months it took to appoint the panel indicates that the Conservatives’ aim has been to avoid the issue on the campaign trail.

“They’re trying to kick the can down the road,” says Morris.

Given the upcoming federal election and the projected scope of the consultations, it is very unlikely that legislation can be crafted before the Court’s declaration of constitutional invalidity of the existing Criminal Code prohibition against physician-assisted suicide takes effect February 6, 2016. Justice Minister Peter MacKay indicated in June that if the Conservative government were re-elected it would ask the court for an extension of the deadline.

The Court unanimously ruled in Carter et al. v. Attorney General of Canada that denying someone the right to end their own life through physician-assisted suicide is an intrusion on personal autonomy and dignity.

Among the thorny issues that the panel must tackle are whether to limit physician-assisted suicide to the terminally ill or to expand eligibility criteria to include the psychologically distressed; whether to impose strict definitions and standards for free and fully informed consent; whether to allow substitute decision-makers to decide a patient’s fate; and whether to implement such conditions as waiting periods or a requirement that two doctors must sign off on a request (as Quebec’s medical-aid-in-dying legislation proposes).

The Court made it clear in its ruling that it believes the eligibility criteria for physician-assisted death should extend well beyond terminal diseases to include a broad range of conditions, encompassing every “competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.”

But the composition of the panel suggests that the Conservatives have stacked it in such a fashion that it is sure to come back with recommendations for highly restrictive protocols governing physician-assisted suicide.

And the delay in appointing the panel all but necessitates a request to the Supreme Court to extend its deadline, though several legal experts have surmised that the Court would be unlikely to grant such an extension given that the federal government has deliberately procrastinated for five months. Last February, the Conservatives voted against a motion that called for the creation of a multi-party special committee to craft protocols for medical-aid-in-dying by midsummer.

Mackay indicated that the panel will “meet with stakeholders from across Canada to seek input on the following key issues: different forms of physician-assisted dying (assisted suicide and/or voluntary euthanasia); eligibility criteria and definition of key terms; risks to individuals and society associated with physician-assisted dying; and safeguards to address risks and procedures for assessing requests for assistance in dying and the protection of physicians’ freedom of conscience. To provide all Canadians with an opportunity to be heard, the Panel will also seek the opinions of the public and interested stakeholders through online consultations.”

The panel will conduct consultations with medical authorities and with interveners in the Carter case to help the federal government formulate a legislative response to the Supreme Court’s decision. It will also consult Canadians, including interested stakeholders, through a public online consultation. The panel will then provide a final report to the Ministers of Justice and Health that outlines its findings and options for a legislative response for consideration by the federal government,” the government stated in a press release.

The three-member panel also includes University of Ottawa law professor and former Quebec cabinet minister Benoît Pelletier.

Polls indicate that 85 per cent of Canadians support physician-assisted suicide.