Advance directives authorizing death. We can do better…
Even before the adoption of the laws permitting euthanasia in Quebec and Canada, which require that it be requested by a capable adult, the pressure to extend it to incapable persons was looming. This possibility is now being considered by an advisory panel to the Canadian government (Council of Canadian Academies), and the recently elected political party in Quebec ...
Continue reading →Euthanasia in Canada: A Cautionary Tale, (World Medical Journal; Vol. 64, Nr. 3, page 17, September 2018)
Continue reading →For immediate release:
Canadian Physicians Won’t Kill
The Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia, representing more than 1100 Canadian doctors, is holding a press conference to present its position and answer questions:
Tuesday October 2, 2018, 10:30 A.M.
HEKLA Meeting Room
CentreHotel Plaza
Aðalstræti 4 – 101 Reykjavík
As World Medical Association (WMA) delegates gather in Reykjavik, Iceland, for its Medical Ethics Conference and Annual General Assembly, Canadian doctors are speaking out against a so-called neutral ethical stance on euthanasia. Canadian physicians ...
Continue reading →Commentary by Dr. Roger Roberge on the article: Time to clarify Canada’s medical assistance in dying law (Canadian Family Physician, September 2018).
The article attempts to clarify notions that are likely to be interpreted in different ways: mental illness as the only underlying medical problem; the imminent loss of capacity and a natural death that is reasonably foreseeable.
Regarding mental illness as the only underlying medical problem, the authors specify that, contrary to the non-eligibility of mature minors and advanced directives, ...
Continue reading →Of 32 non-profit Palliative Care centres scattered around the province of Quebec, even under intense economic and political pressure, only 6 currently allow euthanasia within their walls.
Doctors who promote euthanasia consider this low participation rate as a barrier to the fulfillment of patients’ wishes. Many of them, despite self-identifying as Palliative Care physicians, see no problems with cohabitation: they claim to do both Palliative Care and euthanasia; they promise they will always continue Palliative Care as long as the patient ...
Continue reading →A Tale of Two Visions: Euthanasia and Palliative Care
Of 32 non-profit Palliative Care centres scattered around the province of Quebec, even under intense economic and political pressure, only 6 currently allow euthanasia within their walls.
Doctors who promote euthanasia consider this low participation rate as a barrier to the fulfillment of patients’ wishes. Many of them, despite self-identifying as Palliative Care physicians, see no problems with cohabitation: they claim to do both Palliative Care and euthanasia; they promise they will always ...
Continue reading →Brave New World?
According to Health Canada’s recently released Third Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, approximately 1,500 people died through active physician administered euthanasia in the six month period from July 1st to December 31st, 2017. This number, with reference to our common experience, is both small enough to be easily comprehensible, and large enough to command respect: a thousand dollars are a ...
Continue reading →According to Health Canada’s recently released Third Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, approximately 1,500 people died through active physician administered euthanasia in the six month period from July 1st to December 31st, 2017. This number, with reference to our common experience, is both small enough to be easily comprehensible, and large enough to command respect: a thousand dollars are a lot of dollars; a thousand kilometres are a lot of kilometres; and a thousand lives ...
Continue reading →We are heartened to see, for the second time, a more nuanced and critical view of euthanasia policy emerging from the Collège des Médecins du Québec.
In May 2017 Dr. Yves Robert, Secretary of the College, expressed concern about a loosening of the qualifying criteria leading to euthanasia no longer being a rare exception but rather “Death à la Carte”.
This time, in a letter to Health Minister Gaétan Barrette dated May 29, 2018, CMQ President Dr. Charles Bernard laments the ...
Continue reading →Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia
We are heartened to see, for the second time, a more nuanced and critical view of euthanasia policy emerging from the Collège des Médecins du Québec.
In May 2017 Dr. Yves Robert, Secretary of the College, expressed concern about a loosening of the qualifying criteria leading to euthanasia no longer being a rare exception but rather “Death à la Carte”.
This time, ...
Continue reading →