Euthanasia and law reform.

In 1983, the Law Reform Commission of Canada published its Report on Euthanasia, Aiding Suicide and Cessation of Treatment,1 following its Working Paper2 and Study Paper3 in the Protection of Life series. The Report is interesting more for its approach than for its recommendations. A close examination of it reveals some fascinating parallels between what I have called "legal law reform", 4 which starts off with the existing law, and what may be called "metaphysical law reform", which is based on the accepted philosophical categorization of a particular field of inquiry. In both approaches the law often follows certain accepted logical distinctions as if they were normatively crucial and shows a reluctance to go beyond the established ideological framework. 5 The result is that what purports to be an argument leading to a certain conclusion, in fact amounts to a rationalization of that conclusion.