VANCOUVER — A 64-year-old Burnaby, B.C., woman wants to be the first to receive a physician-assisted death after years of suffering from a disease that has rendered her both paralyzed and in extreme pain.

Rawnie Dunn was born with Friedreich’s ataxia, a 65% hearing loss, scoliosis and heart problems that put her in a wheelchair by the age of 30.

In November 2012, she attempted suicide but was unsuccessful.

When she woke up, she was paralyzed from the neck down and legally blind. Her speech was slurred to the point that only a few people can understand her.

But when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the ban on physician-assisted death Friday, it gave her hope to stay alive for at least one more year.

"It was about having a choice or the option to decide what I wanted," she said. "With me, I started thinking about it in the ’70s when I followed the Sue Rodriguez case.

"I was already an advocate for rights for the disabled, but it was having the choice if I ever needed it."

Although Dunn is physically disabled, she said she can still fully comprehend everything.

"This is the right decision," she said. "Hopefully in the near future it starts to make a difference for a lot of Canadians."

However, the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the ban must be replaced in one year by another law saying it’s a criminal offence to assist someone in a death unless they’re a physician, according to University of Victoria Prof. Eike-Henner Kluge.

The section states that, "Everyone who … (b) aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years."

Kluge, ethics advisor to Rodriguez in her 1993 court case and founding director of the Canadian Medical Association’s department of ethics and legal affairs, said it’s up to the federal government to replace the law.

"Whether the feds do that depends on who wins the next election," he said.

"Conservatives do not support euthanasia or physician-assisted death. It depends on how (Stephen) Harper sees this."

Kluge said the ball is in the federal government’s court.

"It’s been a long time coming," he said. "We’ve worked on this for 21 years, right? When Sue came to me and said, ‘Would you kill me?" And I said, ‘No.’ But I helped challenge the law."