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Home · Politics · Rights & Freedoms · Sue Rodriguez and the Right-To-Die Debate

Topic spans: 1991 - 1995

Sue Rodriguez and the Right-To-Die Debate

"Whose body is this?" With those four words Sue Rodriguez single-handedly catapulted the right-to-die debate onto the public stage. After being diagnosed with the terminal disease ALS in 1991, Rodriguez took her fight all the way to the highest court in the land. She failed to get euthanasia and assisted suicide legalized in Canada. But Rodriguez's battle and her death in 1994 forced a crucial debate on this controversial topic.

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Remembering Rodriguez

Broadcast Date: Feb. 14, 1994

Towards the end of her life, Sue Rodriguez's health was rapidly deteriorating says journalist and friend Anne Mullens in this CBC Radio interview. Mullens describes how Rodriguez had become so weak that she was unable to push the buttons on the remote control. According to Mullens, Rodriguez was in a lot of pain. Her muscles had atrophied to the point that her joints would no longer stay in their sockets. Her shoulders were constantly dislocated.

Yet through all the hardship and the legal setbacks, Mullens says Rodriguez never lost her sense of humour or dignity. Rodriguez told Mullens that she never regretted her public battle, saying she gained strength from her fight. Rodriguez also had a personal motivation; she wanted to make her nine-year-old son proud of his mom.

Remembering Rodriguez

• Sue Rodriguez first befriended Anne Mullens when Mullens started covering Rodriguez's court case for the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
• Ann Mullens later wrote a book on the right-to-die debate called Timely Death: Considering Our Last Rights. It was published 1996.

Remembering Rodriguez

Medium: Radio

Program: As It Happens

Broadcast Date: Feb. 14, 1994

Guest(s): Anne Mullens


Host: Barbara Budd, Michael Enright

Duration: 9:06

Last updated:
Jan. 29, 2004


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