A man who has been charged with selling “suicide kits” online, leading to the deaths of a number of people, has asked Canada’s Supreme Court to intervene in the case as he contests the murder charges.
Kenneth Law of Ontario is accused of selling over 1,000 kits of deadly drugs — and the tubing and masks to utilize them — that led to the deaths of at least 130 people around the world. He faces 14 charges of first-degree murder in Ontario alone, with victims ranging in age from 16 to 36. Now, his lawyers are contesting the charges and asking the high court to intervene, arguing that Law can’t be charged with murder.
“Assisting suicide is not murder,” Law’s lawyers wrote in their filing.
“Mr. Law is not alleged to have been present at any of the deaths. He is not alleged to have deceived the victims into unwittingly ending their own lives. It would impermissibly warp the language of the Code to assert that someone who mails a toxic substance that another person later voluntarily consumes in another location with suicidal intent has ‘actually committed’ their murder,” they further contended.
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According to The Globe and Mail, it is currently a crime to counsel someone to suicide, with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison; a murder conviction is an automatic life sentence. Law’s lawyers argue that though he mailed the drugs, he did not counsel or coerce his victims.
“There has been no suggestion that he coerced any of the deceased. However one may feel about Mr. Law’s alleged conduct, these tragic deaths were suicide, not murder,” they said.
Law’s implication in the deaths of 14 Canadian citizens stands in striking contrast to legalized suicide, which is promoted every day through the country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). There have been countless stories out of Canada of people who are elderly, ill, or disabled who have had suicide suggested to them as an alternative to more costly treatment, or who have sought it out and quickly been approved.
This court case may force the Canadian government to contend with the reality that it is promoting suicide in some instances while admonishing it in others.
