The Liberal’s medically-assisted suicide legislation is dead on arrival.

The Grit’s Bill C-14 comes so far short of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that sparked its drafting, so far short of the all-party committee’s recommendations that followed, so far short of public opinion, that it should simply be put out of its misery.

The problem? The person wishing — surely begging in some cases — for their own death must not only be enduring “intolerable,” unrelievable suffering, their death must also be “reasonably foreseeable."

In other words, they’ll die soon anyway.

Thus, people suffering chronic, untreatable, unbearable pain may still be forced out of Canada to exercise their right to die with dignity, to exercise their “autonomy” as Bill C-14’s preamble rightly puts it. Or maybe they’ll put a bag over their head, or swallow a risky concoction of pharmaceuticals. Maybe a loved one will kill them, thereby risking criminal prosecution. Get the point? And as the person dies they’ll know that the government says, morally, they’re a criminal. Know what government? Stay out of it.

Their life. Their death.

- Related:Doctor-assisted death law is 'discriminatory'

To exercise her right to die, Kay Carter was forced out of Canada. The 89-year-old B.C. woman was suffering “excruciating physical and psychological distress” from spinal stenosis, but was not facing imminent death, according to the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

"It was not reasonably foreseeable that Kay would die a natural death from her underlying disease," BCCLA litigation director Grace Pastine told The Canadian Press. Carter was forced to travel secretly to Switzerland in January 2010, where she legally received medical assistance to end her life.

The irony? The Supreme Court of Canada later ruled Carter ought to have had the right to medically-assisted death. The decision was essentially in line with Bill C-14 — in fact led to it — minus the “foreseeable” death stipulation.

Carter’s daughter, Lee Carter, said she felt “angry” after Bill C-14’s Thursday unveiling. “I feel sad, I'm bitterly disappointed. It's like we've gone through this for five years — and for what?"

Ignoring the fact the watered-down bill opens up all sorts of legal pitfalls, one has to wonder why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his crew didn’t feel they have the moral license to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling, or simply chose to ignore it. Though the judgement didn’t probe other elements of the right-to-die debate, the Carter ruling did say the federal government should legislate assisted death. To that end, a joint all-party committee of MPs and senators was struck. The committee came back in February with a raft of recommendations, far more permissive than those found in Bill C-14, and certainly containing no requirement for imminent death.

There were four dissenting opinions out of the more than 30 committee members, and the opinions didn’t involve “foreseeable” death. They did involve a minor’s right to die, as well as the right to die of those suffering solely from mental illness. Bill C-14 supports neither. Fair enough on those fronts.

Not only would the Liberals be able to piggy-back a more just Bill C-14 on the back of the Supreme Court decision, as well as the all parties committee, they’d also have the overwhelming backing of public opinion.

According to the results of an Insights West poll of 1,035 people released December 2, 79% of respondents strongly or moderately supported physician-assisted suicide. The poll question did not mention “reasonably foreseeable" death; it was not a factor.

The Grits, apparently lacking all grit, have in turn announced a bill disregarding Supreme Court opinion, an all parties committee opinion, and very likely your opinion.

@maxmaudie

mmaudie@postmedia.ca