The Minister for Health and Elderly, Sonia Bélanger, moved this Thursday to introduce a bill aimed in particular at allowing patients with Alzheimer’s disease to make advance requests for medical assistance in dying (MAD). A gesture that “gives hope,” says Sandra Demontigny, spokeswoman for the Quebec Association for the Right to Die with Dignity.
“For many Quebecers, I know that this was a long-awaited bill,” the minister said with tears in her eyes. If passed, the law will allow people with a “serious and incurable illness resulting in disability” to pre-apply. They can then benefit from MAID once they have become disabled.
Ms Demontigny, who has early-stage Alzheimer’s, is confident the bill will pass. “I think the timing is good and I feel the energy is good,” she told Le Devoir. There really is consultation at the level of deputies in the National Assembly. »
The 43-year-old does not want to go into an advanced stage of the disease like her father. “He was on all fours, he was licking the floor, he was growling. Really, it wasn’t the person we knew,” she says.
In addition to this aspect, the bill would allow Quebecers with “a severe and incurable neuromotor disability” to request medical assistance in dying. “Someone who is a prisoner of his body, that’s what we’re talking about,” illustrated the minister.
This component is a repeat request from the College of Physicians of Quebec (CMQ) to harmonize federal law with that of Quebec.
However, Minister of Health Christian Dubé had removed the article on neuromotor disabilities from his draft law submitted in the spring. It had been described as a “surprise” by the opposition parties. Sonia Bélanger believes this aspect will be accepted this time. “If we’re putting it there, it’s because we’re seeing an evolution in society. »
At the end of the parliamentary session last June, the text of Minister Dubé’s law could not be approved by the MPs due to time constraints. The one presented by Minister Bélanger this Thursday takes up the main lines.
All hospitals and hospices
If the bill is passed, hospices and private hospitals will be forced to include medical euthanasia in their care offerings.
Quebec society has chosen to authorize access to MAID, so it is important that everyone can benefit from it, stressed Ms. Bélanger. And this regardless of where they are cared for, she added.
“Unfortunately, over the past few months, I have heard several stories from Quebecers who have had to travel by ambulance to receive medical attention while dying while in a situation of pain,” said the minister, voice shaken by emotion.
The new version of the draft law for the “Amendment of the Death Care Act and other legal provisions” also provides that specialized nurses can provide medical euthanasia like doctors.
Mental disorders excluded
Ms. Bélanger emphasized that people with mental disorders are not included in the expansion of MAID because there is no consensus between the various expert groups.
This is a big debate, says Dr. Alain Naud, General Practitioner and Palliative Care Specialist at the CHU de Québec. “I think it’s okay that it’s not in this Quebec law,” he told Le Devoir.
He points out that Ottawa introduced legislation in February to defer MAID eligibility to March 2024 for Canadians whose only medical criterion is mental disorders.
For its part, the College of Physicians of Quebec hailed the advances proposed in the bill as advance motions on Twitter. “We will assert the rights of people with mental disorders,” tweeted its President, Dr. Mauril Gaudreault.