The decision to include people with disabilities could jeopardize the consensus on expanding medical assistance in dying. The oppositions ensure that this avenue was never considered, but Quebec says it has no choice.
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The Minister of Health tabled his bill on Wednesday which will make it possible to make an advance request for medical assistance in dying, in particular in the case of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Thus, a person who would receive a diagnosis could determine at what stage of the disease he wishes to end his life, even if he is then no longer able to consent.
With a little more than two weeks of parliamentary work before the end of the legislature, the opposition parties said they were ready to collaborate for a rapid adoption, since many groups have already been heard during the previous work of a commission transpartisan.
” Surprise “
But they denounce the addition without notice of a possibility for a disabled person (quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, amputation after an accident, etc.) to take advantage of medical assistance in dying. In this case, it would be a “contemporary” and unanticipated request.
“Disability is an issue that has never been debated in Quebec,” said MNA Véronique Hivon, often referred to as the “godmother” of the first Act concerning end-of-life care.
“We did not see coming the addition of the possibility for people with a neuromotor disability to obtain medical assistance in dying. It was not in our report, ”added the solidarity Vincent Marissal, in tune.
For meme Hivon, this important addition “tremendously complicates” the adoption of the bill by the end of the parliamentary session, since the associations of persons with disabilities will have to be consulted.
Liberal David Birnbaum also describes this new aspect as a “great obstacle” to the adoption of the bill. Consensus has not yet been demonstrated on this issue in Quebec, he believes.
Harmonization with Ottawa
But Minister Christian Dubé assures that he had no choice but to go in this direction, after the Carter and Truchon judgments, which put an end to the criteria of reasonably foreseeable death and end of life.
“We want to respond to federal law, because we have often found ourselves, for doctors, in a position that is a little out of whack. They said: We have to choose between the federal government and Quebec,” he explained.