The Confederation of Disabled People’s Organizations of Quebec (COPHAN) and the Regroupement des activistes pour l’inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ) are disappointed not to have been considered to be part of the group of experts set up by Minister Sonia Bélanger which will look at the concept of neuromotor disability, far from achieving consensus in the context of Bill 11.
However, these groups often find themselves on the front line when people with disabilities are abandoned by the system and have relevant and precise expertise in the notions of disability.
The composition of the committee announced yesterday includes doctors, professors, civil servants, users and the Office of Disabled Persons of Quebec (OPHQ). The committee does not rely on any advocacy organization such as COPHAN or RAPLIQ. Experience-based expertise is essential in a file as sensitive as end-of-life care.
medical aid for living
COPHAN and RAPLIQ respectively presented their briefs on March 28 and 29, 2023 to the Committee on Citizen Relations, as part of the study of Bill 11, mainly concerning the expansion of end-of-care care. living in Quebec. They offer medical assistance to live (AMV) before that to die. They want to bring their skills to this very sensitive debate to avoid possible abuses.
COPHAN and many of their members, including RAPLIQ, believe that medical assistance in dying (MAD) cannot be a solution to compensate for the shortcomings of our health system, its incapacities and even its many dysfunctions.
Indeed, in all circumstances, respect for the person and for human dignity must apply without compromise. Also, there can be no question for the and the ) that medical aid in dying can be extended to people with a neuromotor disability, nor to other future diagnoses. It makes no sense to allow people to use physician-assisted dying because of a lack of service. Also, an anticipated request for medical assistance in dying can take place, we believe, under certain conditions which still need to be better defined.
In cases of pain and dying in agony, suffering should be the dominant factor in the decision to offer MAID for all disabilities.
Quebec now responds to more MA requests than Belgium and the Netherlands. Between April 2021 and March 2022, 5.1% of deaths in the province resulted from the procedure legalized in 2015. An upward trend that is still continuing.
Dignity
For years, everyone has known that the Quebec health care system is broken, hypercentralized and far from the hearts and humanity of the people it should normally serve.
We remain deeply concerned about the living conditions imposed on people with disabilities and who are physically dependent. They languish in often scandalous conditions and Quebec society must realize that this type of situation undermines their dignity.
It is embarrassing to propose the expansion of medical assistance in dying in Quebec, already at the forefront of the world in this field, while it has one of the most expensive and least accessible health and social services systems. in the world among those of the most developed societies. People with disabilities want to live.
Paul Lupian, President of COPHAN
Linda Gautier, principal advisor and co-founder of RAPLIQ