For immediate release
Montreal, 26th May 2022
The CAQ government in Quebec is celebrating the end of the parliamentary session by offering death to as many people as possible. With two weeks left before the summer break the government intends, almost without debate, to radically extend the “medical aid in dying” law.
Death from COVID and war is not enough: we now must deliver it to vulnerable seniors with dementia, and force it upon independent palliative care homes.
Palliative care homes, which are financed primarily through private donations, will be required to euthanize patients regardless of their own policy and code of ethics. This will eliminate the only safe spaces left in Quebec where the majority who do not want MAiD can receive palliative care without fear of being pushed to request it or receiving it without consent.
The bill requires health professionals who diagnose dementia to facilitate advance requests for MAiD by helping newly diagnosed patients describe what sort of future suffering they consider intolerable. They must ensure that this patient in crisis is making a free decision that they want their life ended upon reaching a certain stage in their disease. Free and informed consent for an active intervention to cause death is impossible in advance, and especially in such circumstances.
They must then remind them “at reasonably spaced intervals” that they may change or withdraw their request.
Those who drew up this bill have obviously no idea of the reality in Quebec health care. Dementia is increasingly diagnosed by family doctors. Specialty clinics for cognitive disorders are obliged to make a diagnosis and refer the patients back to primary care for follow-up. The extensive counselling and reflection required by the bill will only detract from the already limited resources available. As happens now in palliative care, scarce resources will be stretched past their limit to include MAiD consultations. Assessments will be rushed. Decisions will be made based on fear and stigma.
When the patient becomes incapable of decision-making, MAiD will be performed, not upon the autonomous request of the patient, but because a third party assesses their suffering as intolerable.
The Netherlands, the only country in the world that allows euthanasia of conscious patients by advance request, is mired in controversy over the practice.
Why this enthusiasm for death?
The popularity of MAiD by advance request can only be explained by the ageism and ableism that are rampant in our culture. Worried well Quebecers look upon their cognitively disabled elders with disdain, summed up as “I don’t ever want to be like them: kill me first”. This bill seeks to calm the fears of well adults at the expense of their future selves.
Media contact:
Charmine Francis
Coordinator
(438) 938-9410
info@collectifmedecins.org