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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, ...

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 ...

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 lot of dollars; a thousand kilometres are a lot of kilometres; and a thousand lives ...

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 ...

Translation by the Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia

BY EMAIL
May 29, 2018

Dr. Gaétan Barrette
Minister of Health and Social services
ministre@msss.gouv.qc.ca

Subject: Access to quality palliative care in Quebec

Mr. Minister,

In accordance with its mission, the Collège des médecins du Québec (hereafter referred to as the Collège), upholds the value of quality health-care, in the service of the public. In particular, with respect to end-of-life care, the Collège has been entrusted and specifically mandated to oversee the implementation and continued application ...

In case anyone thinks the Canadian approach to euthanasia is the best or only approach, we have only to look to our nearest neighbour for proof to the contrary.

Recently the American Medical Association’s Council on Ethical and Juridical Affairs, having received a request from the Oregon delegation that the AMA  take a neutral stance on physician “aid-in-dying”, instead reaffirmed the very clear statements in the existing Code of Ethics regarding both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide:

Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally ...

In response to our January post, we received the following letter from Dr. Jeff Blackmer of the CMA. Our comments on the letter may be found here >>

I read with great interest the recent unattributed blog post on the Physicians’ Alliance Against Euthanasia website entitled “Canada before the World Medical Association: Representation, or Misrepresentation?”. As the primary subject of this post, I welcome this opportunity to provide additional clarity, and a few counterpoints, to some of the issues ...

The news cycle at the Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia is very, very long. We’re not journalists: we’re doctors looking after sick people, who in our spare time try to protect patients, doctors and society from euthanasia, in part through our blog and newsletter.

In November 2017 the World Medical Association held a meeting in Rome to discuss end of life questions, and Dr. Jeff Blackmer of the CMA was there, urging the WMA to change its policy on euthanasia, which ...

It would be safe to say that, even three years ago, no one would have dared propose medically assisted death as a standard end of life treatment in Canada.

Of course not. The roots of public support for MAID lie in its proposal as an affirmation of personal autonomy. MAID was to be an exceptional option: to allow people to choose death at the hands of willing doctors. The motivation was political, not medical. Few would have suggested that there could ...