January 08, 2014 - 5:00 AM
STONY PLAIN, Alta. - Some aiding suicide convictions in Canada:
1998: Toronto doctor Maurice Genereux pleads guilty to helping two HIV-positive patients attempt suicide by prescribing them a lethal dose of a drug. One of the two dies. Genereux, the first physician in Canada convicted of the charge, is sentenced to two years jail and three years probation.
2004: Evode Pelletier is sentenced to one year in jail and two years probation in Quebec for helping his depressed spouse kill herself with cyanide.
2006: Marielle Houle gets three years probation in Quebec for helping her son, playwright Charles Fariala, kill himself with a cocktail of drugs. Fariala, 36, had multiple sclerosis.
2006: An Ontario judge gives Raymond Kirk three years of probation for helping kill his wife, Patricia, who suffered severe pain from back problems that doctors were unable to treat.
2007: B.C. doctor Ramesh Kumar Sharma pleads guilty to prescribing a lethal dose of drugs to a 92-year-old nursing home patient with heart problems. The woman survived. Sharma receives a conditional sentence of two years to serve in the community.
2013: A woman in Nunavut is convicted of aiding suicide for telling her 17-year-old daughter she didn't want her, then counselling the girl to kill herself. The teen made several attempts, but survived. The woman is sentenced to five days in jail and two years probation.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014