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Family doctor David Grube helped end the lives of about 30 patients while caring for the people of Philomath, Oregon.

There’s no gasping, the rural doctor says of the patients as they pass. “There’s no moaning or groaning,’’ he says. ‘‘The person might say a few goodbyes, or thank-you’s, and then just falls asleep.”

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For those deaths, Grube either wrote a prescription for a lethal overdose of drugs, or acted as a consulting doctor in their suicides. He and other proponents believe state-sanctioned, doctor-assisted dying offers people suffering intolerably a more gentle exit.

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But death does not always come easily. Patients have regurgitated the lethal drugs, or “re-awakened” after swallowing them. In some cases, the time between “ingestion” and “expiry” has taken far longer than anticipated.

Now, as Canada braces for legalized assisted dying, the nation’s medical leaders are looking for clarity for doctors prepared to perform this most difficult task: what is the most humane way to take a life?

[np_storybar title=”André Schutten: Parliament needs more than a year to craft a robust euthanasia law” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/andre-schutten-parliament-needs-more-than-a-year-to-craft-a-robust-euthanasia-law”]

Two weeks ago, Canada’s Supreme Court struck down the criminal prohibitions against assisted suicide. The Court gave Parliament 12 months to draft new legislation to put flesh on the skeleton left behind by the Court’s ruling. Or at least, that’s what most people think they did.