OTTAWA–Parliament is being asked to give a hand to the dying – by an MP who has faced death herself.

Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde is hoping against odds to succeed with a private member's bill to amend the Criminal Code and legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.

It's an effort made personal by her own fights with cancer in recent years. The 69-year-old politician made no mention of her health struggles during a 15-minute address to the Commons Tuesday evening to launch the debate. Instead, she said it's time to legalize physician-assisted suicide to give comfort to those living their final days in "intolerable pain."

"Helping someone to die gently and without pain, can we call this murder? Many would say 'no.' And that's what I say," said Lalonde (La Pointe-de-l'Île).

"People who are going through a painful terminal phase, we should not refuse them the right to die with dignity.

She said her bill would allow terminally ill patients to "decide for themselves the time of death."

She cited ongoing efforts by doctors and lawmakers in Quebec to study the question of helping terminally ill patients die in "very precise conditions.

"They want to establish what those conditions are," she said.

She said advances in medical care that keep people alive "longer and longer ... and delay death" are making the issue more pressing.

"Is the capacity to live longer what we want? Sometimes people who have an incurable disease like cancer have imposed on them a very unfortunate quality of life," Lalonde said.

"I believe medicine will have to inevitably work towards a template for end-of-life care and for euthanasia," she said.

But the idea ran into immediate opposition from other MPs during the Commons debate, who warned that permitting assisted suicides would open a Pandora's box.

"Contrary to her intentions, this bill will allow doctors to provide a patient with a lethal injection, making many Canadians vulnerable to premature death," said Conservative MP James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni).

Conservative MP David Sweet (Ancaster-Dundas-Westdale) warned of "unmanageable consequences."

"At what point on this slippery slope do we stop?" he said.

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As a private member's bill, Lalonde's effort to legalize assisted suicides has little chance of becoming law.

It's not the first time she has sought to put the sensitive issue on the parliamentary agenda. Lalonde brought forward a bill on the subject in 2005, but after a few hours of debate the bill disappeared and did not get before a committee before the session ended.