In 2022-2023, 5,211 Quebecers used medical assistance in dying (MAID). Of this number, around twenty people received it at the funeral home.
They chose this option for several reasons: they did not want to breathe their last in a hospital room, they did not have access to a place in a palliative care home, and they did not want to die at home. home in order to preserve the memories of their loved ones.
The reaction to the report by my colleague Hugo Pilon-Larose was very strong.
Read the article “End of Life Care: Medical Assistance in Dying Inc. »
In full parliamentary committee, Minister Sonia Bélanger had to modify her law on the expansion of MAID to specify that people had the right to die in the place of their choice. She put two conditions there: we cannot promote or advertise a service by directly or indirectly associating it with medical assistance in dying, and we cannot impose fees in connection with MAID. .
I don’t know if I would choose to end my days in a funeral home, but I completely understand the reasons that might motivate people to make this choice.
I tell myself that if, collectively, we trust funeral homes to support mourning, why not trust their professionalism and ethics to accommodate medical assistance in dying? If the industry is well regulated, shouldn’t the choice of where we die be a decision that is ours? I wanted to return to the subject to find out more about the experience of the families who had made this choice. And to better understand the impact of this new reality in the funeral services industry where, I was told, salon owners felt a certain unease.
A positive experience
“Those who are against that have never experienced it,” Maxime Signori Marleau tells me. His mother, Dominique Signori, was the first person in Quebec to receive medical assistance in dying in a funeral home, on March 15, 2022.
“My aunt had just died in the hospital and it hadn’t been great, so it was out of the question for my mother to die there,” M’s son confided to me.me Signori. She didn’t want to die at home either out of concern for us who would stay afterwards,” he continues.
Mme Signori died surrounded by a few loved ones, including her mother and her son. Two employees of the funeral complex were present in the room, in the background.
It was very friendly, as if we had known them for 10 years. My mother was still physically fit, so she arrived at the salon on foot. We drank Brazilian coffees, listened to music, then she left… I really liked how it happened, in a very human way. I would say my experience was 100% positive.
Maxime Signori Marleau
Since that day, the Haut-Richelieu Funeral Complex has received 16 cases of medical assistance in dying, including that of Jean-Paul Soulié, a former colleague of The Press, died on January 23. His partner, Colette Dorion, told me that the hospital was not an option for Mr. Soulié. “It was done in simplicity and calm,” she explains modestly.
Everything except the hospital
“I think people are ready to have a collective discussion about where they want to die,” believes Dr.r Richard Dumouchel, who has been practicing MAID since 2016. I would not tell a patient right away that there is a funeral home that offers this option, but if my patient expresses to me the wish not to die at home or hospital, I would feel comfortable telling him that this possibility exists. »
For his colleague the Dr Laurent Boisvert, this novelty is not surprising. “People don’t want to leave in a little blue jacket,” confirms the doctor who has practiced MAID exclusively since 2020. In recent years, he has administered MAID in a park, in a hotel room, in a garden… “It meets a need,” he emphasizes. For me, the hospital is the option of last choice. »
The doctor adds that it is not always possible to receive MAID in hospital. And when possible, you often have to vacate the room quickly. “It depends on the hospital,” he says.
Yes, hospitals go out of their way to set up a space, but with the hubbub, the intercom, etc., it is not always a peaceful context. If you have a private room at the CHUM or MUHC, that’s great. But this is not representative.
The Dr Laurent Boisvert, who has exclusively practiced AMM since 2020
The Dr Boisvert believes that Quebec society has evolved. “In 2015, sick people who wanted to die threw themselves off a cliff. There has been a visceral rejection of religion and today people tell us: you will not tell me how to live my life or how I will die. »
According to him, the minister responsible for the law on MAID, Sonia Bélanger, does not have to worry about possible slippages. “There are not many medical contexts where you are required to have a second opinion and written consent,” he insists. Let people be reassured: we are not killing people who do not want to die! »