VANCOUVER—The legal and moral arguments over Canada’s assisted suicide laws will be front and centre in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday as lawyers launch a challenge on behalf of a terminally ill woman.

They will seek again, as Sue Rodriguez did almost 20 years ago in a case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada, to argue against laws that make it a criminal offence to help seriously ill people end their lives.

The Rodriguez application to receive assisted suicide was rejected by Canada’s highest court in 1993 by a 5-4 decision. A year later, Rodriguez decided to take her own life with the help of an anonymous physician.

The current challenge originated when Lee Carter and her husband filed a suit earlier this year. They are joined by Gloria Taylor, 63, who has late-stage ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, an incurable illness that gradually weakens and degenerates muscles to the point of paralysis.

Taylor is one of five plaintiffs in the case, which also includes family physician Dr. William Shoichet, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Carter and her husband Hollis Johnson.

Because the courts had rejected Rodriguez’s claim, she was technically committing a crime by killing herself with help from a physician. Under Canadian laws, it is illegal to counsel, aid or abet a person to commit suicide. If convicted, the offence could result in a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Lawyer Joe Arvay, who is arguing the Carter case on behalf of Taylor, said in the four months since the court first announced it will allow the case to proceed, his client’s condition has deteriorated.

Arvay said the case couldn’t be more important because all Canadians in one way or another will watch friends or family suffer horribly from various illnesses or diseases.

“For most of those people we hope that they will be able to have a dignified death by the natural process of life and death, but for a small and important percentage the process of dying will be very painful, very horrible, and very undignified,” said Arvay.

“It is for those people that this case is about.”

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said Friday that a planned protest outside the B.C. Supreme Court on Monday will let the public know that the emotionally-charged issue will have a huge impact on all Canadians.

“Canadians should understand how wide this case is that’s being heard. The Carter case wants to define it as all people who are suffering and they are trying to grant doctors the right to cause their death,” said Schadenberg.

“It’s not about choice, it’s about who is gaining the right to do this.”

Schadenberg said the impact of allowing assisted suicide in Canada will have huge ramifications not only on the elderly and people in the disability community but also on the health care system.

Just south of the B.C. border, assisted suicide is legal in Washington State and in Oregon. Other countries that have assisted suicide legislation include Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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The hearing is scheduled to take four weeks.

With files from The Canadian Press