How likely is it that Canada lifting the ban on assisted suicide will encourage other Western nations to do the same?

Not very.

I think it might have a subtle effect by getting the issue into people’s heads again. In the US, some of the border states might start thinking about it again, as might some of the states surrounding areas where it is already legal. The Canada decision could also push the states where it is decriminalized or de facto legal to address the issue more explicitly, and might bring new life to the ongoing debates in California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. I suspect that the window of opportunity will be pretty small, though.

It will help. But this is a slow social change, because it does not affect a lot of people at the same time like other social issues do.

California just started to look at this again after the Brittany Maynard moved to Oregon last fall, there is a bill starting through the legislature. It’s a desirable goal for many people, but it is not considered urgent, so it tends to get put on the back burner as more urgent matters are addressed.

I certainly hope so. I am 10,000% on board for ones right to chose to terminate their lives for many reasons. Everyone should have the right to decide when, how and where.

Not if they find out how the rate of suicide is way higher in the states and countries that adopted it,

This could be one of the books to read.
http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/a-voice-unheard
And this site to go to:
http://www.notdeadyet.org/

It is legal in Oregon.

@flo :: What do you think the process in Oregon is for taking advantage in Physician assisted suicide? And how many people do you think have taken advantage of that since 1997?

@johnpowell I’m looking for the site I read about that. Soon coming.
In the meantime:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/four-myths-about-doctor-assisted-suicide/?_r=0

So you are kinda going on what you have read on some sites. And if your previous two examples are anything to go off of they are heavily biased and totally wrong.

And I just read that last link on the opinionator which pretty much pulled facts without sources.

Feel free to watch How To Die in Oregon.

I think it is an idea whose time is coming slowly with or without Canada. There are countries in Europe and states where it is already legal.

The Not Dead Yet site is a great affirmation for people against assisted suicide. Seems to me unlikely to sway anyone who supports it. It’s more like a carnival booth than a reasonable discourse on assisted suicide. I’d expected something more reasonable.

@ibstubro Seems to me unlikely to sway anyone who supports it. That means nothing, really. If someone is married to an idea evidence matters nothing

Oops I meant to put quote marks around @ibstubro‘s statement, just above.
“Seems to me unlikely to sway anyone who supports it.
There is/are better anti-site/s out there than that one?

I don’t know, @flo, I’m not anti. But I am open minded and I have shifted my opinions based on information given on Fluther.
Not Yet Dead is a believers site for believers. Fine if you’re a believer, but there’s really no point in even bringing it to the attention of non-believers, because it just serves to alienate them further. I do have an opinion, and slamming me in the face with your opposing opinion is unlikely to change mine.
I look at the Not Yet Dead site and think, “You’re welcome to your opinion, I have my own.” Site closed.

@ibstubro Exactly, well said!
@flo Right, and that includes religious nuts that truly buy into some magical after life and the wrath of a god that would smite them to hellfire and brimstone for taking their own lives with zero evidence of such.

@ibstubro _
1)” slamming me in the face with your opposing opinion…”
How did I do the slamming? Can you show the not slamming method?
2) “I am open minded and I have shifted my opinions based on information given on Fluther.”
Fluther is not a site about “doctor asisted suicide”.
@Coloma , @ibstubro, @johnpowell

“Further, opponents of assisted suicide claim that society has a duty to oppose legislation that poses a threat to the lives of innocent persons. And, laws that sanction assisted suicide inevitably will pose such a threat. If assisted suicide is allowed on the basis of mercy or compassion, what will keep us from “assisting in” and perhaps actively urging, the death of anyone whose life we deem worthless or undesirable? What will keep the inconvenienced relatives of a patient from persuading him or her to “voluntarily” ask for death? What will become of people who, once having signed a request to die, later change their minds, but, because of their conditions, are unable to make their wishes known? And, once we accept that only life of a certain quality is worth living, where will we stop? When we devalue one life, we devalue all lives. Who will speak for the severely handicapped infant or the senile woman?” – See more at: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v1n1/suicide.html#sthash.Aa0cwmzM.dpuf

@Coloma No need to bring up religion at all as you can see above.