(Quebec) The group of experts mandated by the Minister for Health and Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, recommends that the concept of neuromotor handicap be replaced by that of “serious physical deficiency leading to significant and persistent disabilities” in the draft Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Act.
“That the equal rights, including the right to self-determination, of persons with severe physical disabilities be recognized,” reads the recommendations of the expert group.
Minister Bélanger welcomes this recommendation. “Several groups have told us: ‘We want to be considered as people in our own right. We don’t want to have the label of disabled.” So I think that responds to what several groups have told us, ”she explained in a press briefing on Friday.
“We especially did not want to discriminate and ensure that people with physical disabilities do not have access to medical assistance in dying if they naturally meet all the criteria,” she added.
Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone agrees. “I very much welcome the fact that we are going to go beyond the definition of disability to go broader. What we do not want is to discriminate against a segment of the population, ”she explained.
Also, the group of experts “believes that when it comes to severe physical impairment, the criterion of ‘advanced and irreversible decline of one’s abilities’ should be replaced by that of ”significant and persistent disabilities’ ‘”.
Such an important modification of the bill must go through the Council of Ministers. Thereafter, the detailed study can continue. The Minister still hopes to have it adopted before the end of the parliamentary session.
“Respect for the right to live”
Before the press briefing, the parliamentarians listened to a dozen groups representing people with disabilities or living with an intellectual disability.
Several spokespersons raised uneasiness and misunderstandings around the notion of “physical disability”. Others worry that the bill casts too wide a net or that medical assistance in dying is seen as an alternative to the lack of services for people with disabilities.
“For us, there is one thing that is important, it is that there is respect for the right to live. We want the government to establish all the services and to repair what it has damaged to ensure that the person has a taste for life. It must not be because of a lack of service that she will ask for medical assistance in dying, ”supported the chairman of the board of directors of the Confederation of Disabled People’s Organizations of Quebec, Paul Lupien. .
“We are concerned about the delay in applying a new law that would expand medical assistance in dying. We think that it would take a period of time, perhaps a year, to allow the workers, the doctors and the people involved to be trained in relation to the new criteria”, explained, for his part, the director general of the same group, André Prévost.
Reminder
At the beginning of April, the Minister announced the creation of a committee of experts to examine the concept of neuromotor disability.
“The concept of neuromotor disability is difficult to define and therefore it would mean, possibly, difficult to apply. And that would also mean that it could cause harm, ”said Minister Sonia Bélanger at the time.
During the consultations on the bill, groups, such as the College of Physicians, asked for the removal of the adjective “neuromotor” in order to encompass several types of disabilities, and thus to tie in with the federal government. Former PQ MP Véronique Hivon – considered the “mother” of the current MAID law – called for caution and substantive debate, given that the definition of the word disability is “extremely broad” .
Minister Bélanger had acknowledged, after the first day of consultations, that the notion of neuromotor disability was far from reaching consensus.
Bill 11, tabled in February, aims to broaden the criteria for making a request for medical assistance in dying. It would open the door to advance requests for people with a serious and incurable disease.