Alliance communication

In recent issues of this Newsletter we have considered the dangers of different ongoing schemes for enlarging the qualifying criteria for euthanasia, to include people with dementia (by advance directive), “mature” minors (with or without parental consent or knowledge) and those for whom psychiatric illness is the sole underlying condition.

Unfortunately, by virtue of a challenge currently undertaken by Mr. Jean Truchon and Ms. Nicole Gladu before the Québec Superior ...

Maintaining humanity at the heart of pediatric care…

Dear friends,

Euthanasia (MAID) was originally sold to the public, and to our profession, as an extraordinary response to a request made by a competent adult whose death was at hand, and whose unbearable suffering could be relieved (so it was said) by no other means. But the intention to rapidly extend the practice of euthanasia well beyond those limits was evident from the ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 31^st, 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 ...

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, ...