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Open letter to Mme Véronique Hivon

Mme Hivon:

You label as « ideology » the decision made by the McGill University Health Centre to not euthanize patients on the palliative care ward.

“The patients at the end of life are the ones who should have their rights respected and be at the centre of the organization of care”, you say. If that is what you really believe, where were you when the number of palliative care beds at the MUHC was reduced for budgetary reasons? When the specialized geriatrics unit was closed completely? Why do you not speak out when patients are transferred all over the hospital and the city for trivial reasons, as is regularly done in Quebec?

What other than ideology could make you want to force hospitals, not only to kill patients, but to kill them in the one place where they most need to be protected?

Palliative care professionals are experts in easing the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients, accompanying them to the very end of their lives, with no need to kill them in order to do so. Now they are struggling, all over Quebec, to continue providing the same peace at the end of life in a situation where death is being promoted. Yes, promoted. This law was passed against the better judgment of those who know best how to care for the dying. Now you want to eliminate even the little safe space that is left for patients and professionals. All they ask for is one place in the hospital where there is no risk of being killed.

You got what you wanted when this law passed. Now you want to crush every tiny focus of opposition to your favourite project.

That is more than ideology. It’s intolerance, pure and simple.

We support the freedom of the palliative care professionals at the MUHC (and at every hospital) to ensure there are safe spaces for patients.

Yours truly,

1. Catherine Ferrier MD, family physician, Montréal
2. André Lavoie MD, hematologist – oncologist, Lévis
3. Abraham Fuks MD, clinical immunology (retired), Montréal
4. Yves Bacher MD, geriatrician, Montréal
5. Sarah Lalonde MD, family and emergency physician, Montréal and Cree territories
6. Athanasios Katsarkas MD FRCSC, oto-rhino-laryngologist, Montréal
7. Rosaire Vaillancourt MD FRCSC, thoracic surgeon, Québec
8. Marie Yaremko MD, family physician, Montréal
9. David Philibert MD FRCPC, nephrologist, Québec
10. Michel Brouillard MD, family physician, Rouyn-Noranda
11. Errol B. Marliss MD FRCPC, Internist (Endocrinology and Metabolism) Montréal
12. Raymond Lalande MD MA FCMF, family physician, Montréal
13. Jean-Pierre Routy MD FRCPC, hematologist – oncologist, Montréal
14. Magdi Sami MD, cardiologist, Montréal
15. Albert Larbrisseau MD FRCPC, neurologist, Montréal
16. Michel Masson MD, Pediatrician – neonatologist (retired), Québec
17. Michel de Maupeou MD, family physician (retired), La Sarre
18. Sherif Emil MD CM FRCSC FACS FAAP, pediatric surgeon, Montréal
19. Sasha Bernatsky MD, rheumatologist, Montréal
20. Christos Karatzios MD CM FRCPC, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Montréal
21. Michel R. Morissette MD, retired physician, Lévis
22. Nathalie de Grandpré MD, family physician, Montréal
23. Mathieu Gazdovich MD, family physician, Montréal
24. Svetlana Ninkovic MD, neurologist, Longueuil
25. Nicholas Newman MD FRCSC, orthopaedic surgeon, Montréal
26. Matthieu Tittley MD FRCPC, psychiatrist, Sherbrooke
27. Joan Zidulka MD, hematologist – oncologist, Montréal
28. Louis Martel MD, family physician, Trois-Rivières
29. Sonia Calouche MD, psychiatrist, saint-Eustache
30. Vijayabalan Balasingam MD, neurosurgeon, Pointe-Claire
31. Pierrette Girard MD, orthopaedic surgeon, Pointe-Claire
32. Odile Michaud MD, family medicine and home palliative care, Beloeil
33. José A. Morais MD FRCPC, geriatrician, Montréal
34. Juan-Francisco Asenjo MD FRCPC, Anesthesia and pain medicine, Montréal
35. Jaques R. Rouleau MD CSPQ FRCPC FACC, cardiologist, Québec
36. Helene Boutin MD, urologist, Rimouski
37. Jacques Beaudoin MD, cardiologist, Québec
38. Normand Lussier MD, general practitioner, Montréal
39. Mathieu Brouillet MD, family physician, Rimouski
40. Gerald van Gurp MD, family physician, Montréal
41. Jean-Pierre Beauchef MD, endocrinologist, St-Lambert
42. Louis Morissette MD FRCPC, psychiatrist, Montréal
43. Marie Grenier MD, family physician (retired), Longueuil
44. Richard Haber MD, pediatrician, Montréal
45. Suzanne Labelle MD, family physician (retired), Laval
46. Louis-Marie Lagacé MD, general practitioner, Sainte-Agathe des Monts
47. Jean-Bernard Girodias MD, Emergency pediatrics, Montréal
48. Anne Marie Uhlir MD, family physician, Sainte-Croix
49. Wafik Andrawes MD, Internist, Sorel-Tracy
50. Paul Barré MD, Nephrologist, Montréal
51. André Rochon MD, general practitioner (retired), Montréal
52. Howard Cohen MD, family physician, Kirkland
53. Bernard H. Doray MD, pediatrician (retired), Montréal
54. Joe Nemeth MD CCFP, Family and emergency physician, Montréal
55. Alain Côté MD, home care physician, Laval
56. Tommy Aumond-Beaupré MD, family physician, Montréal
57. Michelle Bergeron MD, family physician (retired), Québec
58. Annik Dupras MD, internist-geriatrician, Le Gardeur
59. Simon Wing MD, endocrinologist, Montreal
60. Antonio Vigano, MD, MSc, attending physician, Supportive and Palliative Care Service, Montreal
61. Gilles Gaudreau MD, family physician, Sorel-Tracy
62. Stephen Martin MD, family physician, Montreal
63. Betty-Anne Story PhD, MD, CCFP, FCFP, family physician
64. Tom Vanka MD, family physician, Drummonville