(Quebec) The long-awaited and consensual expansion of access to medical assistance in dying risks being “screwed up” and postponed until after the general election, fears the opposition. She urges the Legault government to table a bill as soon as possible, when there is very little time left to be able to adopt it by the end of the parliamentary session on June 10.
Posted at 2:26 p.m.
Updated at 3:01 p.m.
On Thursday, MPs David Birnbaum (PLQ), Vincent Marissal (QS) and Véronique Hivon (PQ) made a joint public outing to pressure the Legault government to follow up on the report of the cross-party commission on aid medical to die filed in December. They had an eloquent guest at their side to shake things up.
” Hurry up. There are people like me, thousands of people, whose countdown has started and it doesn’t stop,” said Sandra Demontigny, who suffers from an early and hereditary form of Alzheimer’s disease. “I am expected to have two or three years of acceptable life left,” she added, her throat tight with emotion. She wishes to be able to submit an advance request for medical assistance in dying, which would allow her to “depart in serenity” and in “dignity” when the time comes.
Photo Jacques Boissinot, archives The Canadian Press
Sandra Demontigny suffers from an early form of Alzheimer’s.
It is precisely people like her that the long-awaited bill would help.
In a report, the special and transpartisan commission on the evolution of Act respecting end-of-life care recommended expanding access to medical assistance in dying for unfit people, such as those with Alzheimer’s, by allowing them to make an “advance request”. David Birnbaum (PLQ), Vincent Marissal (QS) and Véronique Hivon (PQ) were members of this commission.
Under the End of Life Care Act filed by Véronique Hivon and adopted in 2014, only a person capable of giving consent, who has an incurable disease and whose decline is advanced and irreversible, can obtain medical assistance in dying. A person with Alzheimer’s or dementia cannot get it right now because they are unable to express their consent. It is not possible to request medical assistance in dying in advance.
The Legault government has undertaken to table a bill to follow up on this recommendation, but it has still not done so. The parliamentary session ends on June 10. “If we adjourn” without adopting a law, “it’s screwed”, and it will be necessary to wait a year for the file to be settled, said Vincent Marissal at a press conference. “So yes, we are putting pressure on the government. Hurry up. There are 4 weeks left. That’s not a lot of sand in the hourglass. »
Photo Olivier Jean, LA PRESSE archives
Vincent Marissal
“It’s really midnight to one,” insisted Véronique Hivon. “It is important that the message be heard and that the bill be tabled now. […] In a month, by working long hours, we are able to get there” and adopt the legislative text.
David Birnbaum clarified that there is no question of “sparing a rigorous examination” of a bill and that the opposition is ready to sit “day and night” to do the work .
The cross-party commission was chaired by CAQ MP Nancy Guillemette, who was conspicuous by her absence on Thursday. Véronique Hivon clarified that “Ms. Guillemette, for reasons that belong to her, could not be there”, but that “she is informed and in solidarity with today’s approach”.
At the exit of the Blue Room, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, affirmed that “the bill is in preparation and will be tabled”. He did not make a formal commitment to have it adopted before June 10, the last day of the parliamentary session before the summer break and then the electoral campaign. He already has three bills under consideration in the National Assembly.
In its report, the special commission recommends that “a person of full age and able to make an advance request for medical assistance in dying following a diagnosis of a serious and incurable disease leading to incapacity”, such as a neurocognitive disorder. .
The commission proposes a framework for this expanded access to medical assistance in dying. Only a person who has been diagnosed with a serious and incurable illness which will lead to their incapacity could make an advance request. An adult in perfect health could not make one in anticipation of a possible incapacity following an accident, for example.
When drafting such an advance request, the doctor should ensure “the free” and “informed” nature of the person’s decision, without external pressure. The person could modify the request as long as they are capable. It should “designate a trusted third party responsible for making known its anticipated request for medical assistance in dying and claiming on its behalf the processing of the request at the appropriate time”. In the absence of a trusted third party or in the event of an impediment, “the responsibility for protecting the patient’s will and for acting must be assumed by a member of the care team”.
Still according to the recommendations of the commission, “when the trusted third party files the request on the advance request”, the doctor must examine “both, the request and the advance request”, take them into consideration and respond to them without delay.
Before administering medical assistance in dying, the doctor must ensure that the person meets certain criteria, such as having “physical or psychological suffering, including existential, constant, unbearable [ne pouvant] be appeased under conditions deemed tolerable”.