(Quebec) By the very admission of the godmother of the Act respecting end-of-life careVéronique Hivon, the “door is closing” to adopt the bill which aims to expand access to medical assistance in dying by the end of the session on Friday.
Posted at 11:09 a.m.
“I can’t tell you that I’m optimistic, but I still have a little hope. I have a small hope, but I am aware of the magnitude of the task that is still ahead of us, ”argued Thursday the PQ MP, who is participating in the detailed study of Bill 38 on medical aid. to die. “I am aware that it is Thursday and that the end of the session is tomorrow, and that the door is closing,” she added.
The parliamentarians have so far studied the “articles which are the most fundamental”, but there are still “dozens” of them to be examined, said Ms.me Hivon. It is therefore becoming more and more likely that the elected officials will not be able to accomplish the task by Friday, the last day of the session. Bill 38 must then be adopted by parliamentarians in the National Assembly.
Opposition parties have accused the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, of tabling his legislative text at midnight minus one on May 25. Rarely, the minister withdrew a controversial amendment on the eligibility of people with severe and incurable neuromotor disabilities the day after the bill was tabled due to a lack of consensus.
Véronique Hivon ensures that despite the very tight agenda, the parliamentarians are conducting a “very serious” examination of the bill. “We are not turning any corners at the moment, we have not rushed at all to adopt this, we are really turning over every stone,” explained the PQ member who will leave politics at the end of her mandate. “If ever we don’t succeed, I would like to be invited as a witness,” she said.
CAQ MP Nancy Guillemette, who chaired the special cross-party commission on the evolution of Act respecting end-of-life care, warns for his part that the bill will not be adopted “at all costs” by the end of the session. “I’m still optimistic, it’s still possible, but you have to take the time to do things. It is a subject that is sensitive, ”she said on Thursday.
Bill 38 should allow people suffering from an incurable and serious disease, such as Alzheimer’s, to make an advance request, an issue on which there is consensus in Quebec. The College of Physicians and the Barreau du Québec have expressed serious reservations as doctors would expose themselves, according to them, to criminal prosecution if the Criminal Code is not amended upstream.
According to the College of Physicians, the absence of a mechanism for advance requests in the Criminal Code renders these provisions of the bill downright “unenforceable”. The Barreau du Québec is asking that the articles on advance requests be activated by decree after the adoption of the bill when the federal government will amend the Criminal Code to in turn expand access to medical assistance in dying.
Ottawa plans to update its law on medical assistance in dying only in March 2023. Quebec has no guarantee that the federal government would amend the Criminal Code on the question of advance requests at this time.