Canada judge halts medically assisted death of woman in rare injunction

The ruling comes as Canada remains in a fractious debate over the expansion of medical assistance in dying, or Maid. Photograph: Bhakpong/Getty Images/iStockphoto

A British Columbia judge has issued a rare, last-minute injunction barring a woman from accessing euthanasia after physicians in her home province refused to approve the request.

The injunction, granted to the woman’s common law partner, blocks the Vancouver physician Ellen Wiebe, or any other medical professional, from “causing the death” of an Alberta woman within the next 30 days.