The College of Physicians of Quebec (CMQ) is making a last attempt to push the Minister of Health to expand access to medical aid for people affected by “neuromotor disabilities”. “It’s not assisted suicide, it’s a treatment,” insisted its president, Mauril Gaudreault, on Tuesday.
In a plea to parliamentarians, he lamented that “if [une] person lived in Ottawa rather than Gatineau, they would not spend the rest of their life suffering and waiting for death”. According to him, the Quebec law on end-of-life care has lagged behind the federal law.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, tabled Bill 38 last week “amending the Act respecting end-of-life care and other legislative provisions”. In particular, it provides for admitting people afflicted by incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s to medical assistance in dying and on advance request.
However, in his legislative text, Mr. Dubé also proposes that people affected by neuromotor disabilities, such as paraplegia, can have access to it. This addition took opposition groups by surprise last week; they alternately demanded that the Minister back down, for lack of “consensus”.
Mr. Dubé accepted their arguments. He will soon withdraw the articles of the bill governing neuromotor disabilities. “It’s only a postponement,” he said last week.
” Open window “
On Tuesday, the CMQ took note of the decision of Quebec, while calling on parliamentarians to lead a debate on this subject as soon as possible. “The window is there, open,” said Mauril Gaudreault. We will try to convince all parliamentarians of the merits of these advancements. […] On behalf of the patients, it is important that this examination takes place as soon as possible. »
According to the professional order, responsible in particular for protecting the public, it is important to harmonize the Quebec law with the federal law. By amending the Criminal Code last year, Justin Trudeau’s government extended the boundaries of medical assistance in dying to people with disabilities. He even offered himself the possibility of allowing those who are affected by mental disorders to have access to it from next year. “There cannot be two laws for the same suffering,” said Dr. Gaudreault.
Before retracing his steps last Thursday, Minister Dubé also referred to a necessary “harmonization” of legislative frameworks. The oppositions had answered him that the debate had not yet been done.
“I feel invested with a great responsibility because the opponents were told that there would always be a broad consensus,” said Parti Québécois MP Véronique Hivon on Tuesday, author of the first Quebec law on the medical assistance in dying. “Our job as legislator is to ensure the comfort of the population”, added the united deputy Vincent Marissal, according to whom the addition to the law of the concept of neuromotor disability would create a form of “assisted suicide”.
The CMQ maintains the need for this modification, demanded by its members and the public, according to Dr. Gaudreault. In its advocacy, the College even went so far as to ask the elected members of the National Assembly to study the extension of medical aid in dying to people affected by mental disorders. “If Bill 38 passes without a provision for immediate harmonization [avec le fédéral]we [plaçons] patients, doctors and specialized nurse practitioners in a situation of cantilever, ”raised the director general of the CMQ, André Luyet, on Tuesday.
According to Christian Dubé, the postponement of the debate does not mean that it will not take place, but that it will have to wait. The parliamentary calendar foresees eight days between now and the end of the session – and of the legislature.