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Who gets to decide when medical treatments are no longer worth pursuing and should be ended? The doctors? The patients? In the case of those who can’t speak for themselves, their surrogate decision makers?

Is discontinuing care when doctors deem all hope of recovery is gone the equivalent of allowing a patient to die — or hastening a death?

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In the coming weeks, seven justices of the Supreme Court of Canada will be mulling over these questions and what the law says about them as they craft a judgment in a case entitled “Brian Cuthbertson, et al. versus Hassan Rasouli by his Litigation Guardian and Substitute Decision Maker, Parichehr Salasel.”

The Ontario case was argued before the court Monday in a three-hour hearing. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin closed the proceedings by declaring the court would reserve judgment. No hint was given as to how soon a decision will come.

When it does, though, the Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to have a profound effect on how decisions are taken in end-of-life care cases across Canada. Parties throughout the health-care system and those who scrutinize how such decisions are made are relieved the country’s highest court is taking on this issue.