(Quebec) The Legault government will follow up “in due time” on the report tabled on December 8, which recommends extending medical assistance in dying (MAD) to people suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Updated yesterday at 4:41 p.m.
This is what he replied on Monday to MPs urging him to quickly present a bill by the end of the session so that it can be adopted before the general election on October 3.
In fact, “we are still at the report analysis stage,” conceded Marjaurie Côté-Boileau, press secretary to the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, on Monday.
David Birnbaum (PLQ), Vincent Marissal (QS) and Véronique Hivon (PQ), all members of the special commission behind the report, argued that part of the population was impatiently awaiting this bill.
“If your mother finds out today that she has Alzheimer’s and is already in stage 3, […] she cannot apply for medical assistance in dying,” Mr. Marissal recalled in an interview.
“I don’t want to scare the world here, but […] if we are not able to pass the bill this session, well in my opinion, we start the clock again and we have it for a year, ”he summarized.
The current law, adopted in 2014, sets very strict criteria for being able to claim from a doctor that he shortens our suffering.
The informed consent of the patient, up to the point of death, is at the heart of the process, with some exceptions. People who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s therefore do not have access to it under any circumstances.
According to the members of the commission, their position reflects “the major tendencies” of opinions observed in Quebec society on this subject in recent years.
There is currently, according to them, a “social consensus” in favor of an extension of the law intended for people who have become incapacitated.
“If I become incontinent, unable to identify my children […] very clearly, I will be able to know that my life will be able to end in dignity,” illustrates Liberal MP David Birnbaum.
“That’s what’s at stake, so ‘let’s go’,” he added in a telephone interview.
There are only about thirty sessions left in the National Assembly, which is not much considering that any possible bill on MAID will have to be studied in detail.
What’s more, there are already three bills pending at the Health and Social Services Committee, which is currently studying Bill 15 on youth protection.
“It’s unfortunate, because if [l’AMM] had been prioritized when we came back in February, [le projet de loi] would already be adopted”, launched Mr. Marissal, who criticizes the government for its “mismanagement of the legislative apparatus”.
Still possible?
Despite everything, PQ MNA Véronique Hivon, considered the “mother” of the current law, believes that it is still possible to move things forward.
According to his analysis, a minister other than Minister Dubé could table the bill on MAID, and entrust its study to the Committee on Institutions, for example.
“There is nothing impossible”, she affirms in an interview, before adding: “I find it hard to see how the government could ignore such detailed work that we have done, which bears a consensus of the population so great”.
For her part, the president of the special commission, the caquist Nancy Guillemette, remains cautious in her comments. She says she has confidence in Mr. Dubé, “a very caring man”.
“The rest belongs to the minister and his team,” she was content to answer.
77 witnesses
On December 8, the special commission recommended that anyone who has been diagnosed with a serious and incurable disease leading to incapacity be able to sign an advance MAID request.
This excluded people whose only medical condition is a mental disorder.
In their report, the members of the commission predicted that the role of physicians would be decisive in ensuring the proper management of advance requests.
The attending physician had to ensure that the request was free and informed. He also had to make sure that the patient fully understood the nature of the diagnosis and the expected course of his disease.
The applicant could even write on the form the stage of the disease at which he wishes the lethal treatment to be administered.
He had to identify a “trusted third party”, responsible for alerting the medical authorities when he deemed the time had come to follow up on his wishes.
This person would have a sort of responsibility “to wave the flag”, according to Ms.me Hivon, who recalled that in this area of end-of-life care, Quebec remained “a pioneer”.
According to the wishes of the commission, the form had to be signed in the presence of two witnesses and a doctor, and the procedure could in future be administered either by a doctor or by a supernurse.
A consultation on this delicate subject was conducted over seven days last spring and in August. A total of 77 individuals and organizations were heard and 75 briefs were filed.