A Canadian member of Parliament wept Monday as he told how he held the country's most famous euthanasia activist in his arms as she died peacefully in a doctor-assisted suicide.
Svend Robinson called for doctor-assisted suicide to be legalized and said he committed no crime by helping and comforting Sue Rodriguez at her deathbed Saturday. Police say they are investigating Robinson's role in the case."I was present to assist Sue, and certainly I have no reason to believe I committed any criminal offense in those circumstances," Robinson told a news conference in Ottawa.
Assisted suicide is a crime in Canada, but legal experts say it is highly unlikely that anyone who helped Rodriguez kill herself would be prosecuted. Robinson said he had hired an attorney to represent him.
"Sue remained serene and calm throughout and in total control. She faced her death with incredible courage," Robinson said of Rodriguez's final hours.
"I held her in my arms. She peacefully lapsed into unconsciousness and stopped breathing about two hours later," he said as he choked back tears.
Rodriguez, who suffered from a fatal nervous disease, single-handedly put the right-to-die issue on the national agenda. She took her fight to the Supreme Court, saying laws against doctor-assisted suicide violated her civil rights.
She lost by a slim 5-4 margin in a landmark ruling last September. But her plight sparked an intense debate that echoed that in the United States over Michigan doctor Jack Kevorkian, who has defied state laws to assist the terminally ill to kill themselves.
Rodriguez, 43, asked Robinson to be with her when she died because she feared being alone. Her husband, Henry Rodriguez, and nine-year-old son, Cole, left the home Saturday morning and did not return until after she died.
Robinson said he cooperated fully with police but obeyed Rodriguez's request to keep the name of the doctor involved secret.
Rodriguez picked the date of her death in mid-January and told no one but her doctor, husband and Robinson.
Rodriguez lived near Victoria about 40 miles west of Vancouver. Her disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is an incurable nervous disorder that attacks muscle control.