Article Report 3: "Suicide class for terminally ill cancelled by Vancouver library"

CBC News
Monday September 21, 2009.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/21/bc-suicide-class-vancouver-public-library.html

The Vancouver Public Library has told an Australian group that it can't use the library's public meeting rooms to hold a suicide workshop for the terminally ill.” The suicide workshop was to be hosted by the group Exit International, founded by Dr. Phillip Nitschke. Nitschke admits that the workshops are controversial but claims that his organization’s only intention is to “to help the terminally ill decide when and how they die.” The Library sought legal advice after city librarian Paul Whitney, cancelled the reservation for a public room. They were told that “in all likelihood this program would be in contravention of Section 241 of the Criminal Code and that states that it is an indictable offence to counsel or aid or abet any person to commit suicide” the penalty for which being a maximum sentence if convicted is 14 years, whether a suicide takes place or not. Whitney’s statement on the matter was "Freedom of speech and access to information are core values for us, but having said that, the library was not prepared to be party to a probable criminal offence, which could result in the loss of life”.

Personally, in this article, I am in support of the Librarians and their denying access to a suicide workshop. The way I always considered rights was if you stretched your arms out wide and spun in a circle, that was al the rights that you had; but as soon as your hands touched someone else’s, both of your rights(arm lengths) would be constricted so that you could freely rotate( have rights) .