I salute the approach of Mr.gr Christian Lépine who contests the part of the Act concerning end-of-life care requiring palliative care homes to offer medical assistance in dying. The respective philosophies of palliative care (life is worth living until its natural end and can be lived with dignity) and medical assistance in dying (a person’s condition affects their dignity point that it is sometimes better to die) are contradictory. However, having been interested in it, I know that palliative care is an ecosystem that requires coherence. It will become more difficult to invest multidisciplinary resources, creativity, budgets and energy if you have to be ready to move in the opposite direction at any time. I think that it is in the interest of all Quebecers that specialized environments continue to exist where palliative care can be deployed to its full extent, thus offering, in our strained health system, a real alternative option to medical assistance in dying.
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