In unanimous ruling Friday, Canada's Supreme Court struck down a decades-old law banning assisted-suicide. Now mentally-competent adults suffering from incurable diseases (or who are otherwise in intolerable pain) have the legal right to seek a doctor's help in dying.

From the Toronto Star:

The judges said the law is therefore an unconstitutional breach of three of the most basic rights: to life, liberty and security of the person, all enshrined in section 7 of the Charter, and cannot be justified in a free democratic society.

The court read those basic rights broadly and, agreeing with a B.C. trial judge, said the right to life is not limited to a "right not to die."

"This would create a duty to live," rather than a "right to life and would call into question the legality of any consent to the withdrawal or refusal of life-saving or life-sustaining treatment," the court said.

The ruled upon case involved two women, Kay Taylor and Kathleen Carter, both of whom suffered from incurable degenerative diseases and have since died. Carter's daughter called the ruling "a huge victory for Canadians and a legacy for Kay."

According to the Globe and Mail, the court has suspended its ruling for 12 months in order to allow the government and other regulatory bodies time to create new laws and policies about assisted suicide.