Please click the following link to view our mailing of July 1, regarding the Quebec Select Committee on the Evolution of the Act respecting end-of-life care.
The Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia will appear before the Committee on August 12. Dr. Candice Cattan and Dr. Catherine Ferrier will represent the Alliance. You can read our brief online.
Click here to consult a detailed hearing schedule of the Special consultations and public hearings on the Evolution of the Act respecting end-of-life care
As you will recall, this committee is studying the question of extending “medical aid in dying” (MAiD)
- to people whose only medical problem is a mental illness;
- and to people incapable of decision-making who made an advance request for MAiD.
All details can be found on the Committee website.
If you have not already done so, we urge you to express your opinion to the Committee.
The deadline to request to appear before the committee has already passed. You may still participate before August 24, 2021.
- By submitting a brief by email to CSSFV@assnat.qc.ca.
- By answering the online survey at (choose at the top the language in which you wish to respond).
- If there is no choice of answer to a question that respects your opposition to euthanasia, answer “I don’t know”. You may write the reasons for this choice, and give your opinion, in the narrative boxes at the end of each section and of the survey.
Before doing so, you are invited read the information document:
Other materials of interest to help you prepare your submission:
- Briefs presented to the Committee in Phase I
- by Psychologist Georgia Vrakas and psychiatrists Dr. Félix Carrier & colleagues, and psychiatrist Dr. Pierre Gagnon & colleagues on euthanasia for mental illness;
- and by geriatrician Dr. Félix Pageau on euthanasia by advance request for dementia.
- MAID for Mental Illness: Myths & Facts by Dr. John Maher
- Articles by US psychiatrist Dr. Mark Komrad and colleagues.
If you would like us to review your brief before sending it, we would be happy to do so.
We remind physician members of the Collège des Médecins du Québec that the College has also requested briefs on these subjects, of a maximum of 10 pages, by email to presidence@cmq.org, before August 15. We encourage you to submit your brief to both the College and the government Committee, to ensure your voice is heard at both levels.
Sincerely,
Charmine Francis
Coordinator
Other items of interest:
- Why is access to medically assisted death a legislated right, but access to palliative care isn’t?
- The mad rush to implement MAiD legislation by Peter Stockland
- RE: A Unique Milestone – Romantic and Inaccurate. CMAJ 2021; 15 April 2021. Response to 193:E345-E346. Romayne E. Gallagher, Michael J. Passmore
