Advocates of doctor-assisted suicide will be holding a rally on Saturday (October 23) at the Vancouver Art Gallery in an effort to acquire more choice when it comes to dying.

Assisting someone with a suicide is currently illegal in Canada. Rally organizer Ruth Goodman told the Georgia Straight that it's time people had the right to decide if, when, and how they want to end their lives.

"There aren't adequate spots to die with ease in the public system," Goodman said in a phone interview, "and most people can't afford private care. Most women become widows, and their families are spread out; they might be in Edmonton and Toronto...

"When the time comes, you get dumped in a hospital," she added. "That's where you go to die....Doctors end up keeping you alive but you don't want to be alive."

Goodman--who said the option is especially important for those with a terminal illness--is a member of Choices in Dying, a Vancouver-based organization that's sponsoring the rally and that supports the right of "competent" adults to seek physician-assisted death. According to its Web site (www.choicesindying.com/), the group also works to improve people's "quality of dying".

"Individuals who join Choices in Dying believe strongly in empowering patients to make end-of-life decisions based on their values and personal beliefs," the site says. "People who support compassion in dying believe in the right to a dignified and humane death."

The Right to Die Society of Canada (www.righttodie.ca/) is also sponsoring the event, which takes place at 2 p.m. on the gallery's Robson Street side.

According to the Junction City, Oregon--based Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, doctor-assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The practice has been legal in Oregon since November 1997, through the Death with Dignity Act. The Oregon Department of Human Services' sixth annual report on the act, released this past March, states that in 2003, 42 doctors wrote 67 prescriptions for lethal doses of medication. That compares with 58 prescriptions written in 2002, 44 in 2001, 39 in 2000, 33 in 1999, and 24 in 1998.

The rally coincides with the ongoing trial of Vancouver Island senior Evelyn Martens, who is facing two counts of aiding and abetting a suicide. According to a Web site in support of Martens (www.evelynmartens.ca/), the 74-year-old is a long-time member of the Right to Die Society. The two people she helped were terminally ill.