'We do not know when this evil can strike': Quebec MP calls for urgent change to assisted dying laws

Pandemic affecting assisted dying legislation MedicalWatch for Monday, Dec. 21, 2020.

Montreal — Parti Quebecois MNA Pascal Bérubé delivered an urgent plea on Thursday to legalize advance requests for medical assistance in dying.

His calls came a day after a special commission published recommendations to the National Assembly to amend the law on end-of-life care to authorize certain patients to make advance requests for physician-assisted dying.

Asked by journalists about his position, the deputy for Matane-Matapedia, Pascal Bérubé, did not hide that the issue is close to his heart.

Bérubé’s father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, before losing much of his independence and dying of complications related to the disease.

“If my father had been able to choose, he would certainly have signed a form allowing him to have access to an early death,” he said, adding that he himself would not hesitate for a moment to sign such a form, should he come under the same diagnosis.

The 46-year-old MNA says he warned his wife, Annie-Soleil Proteau, of those intentions, concerned that there are several cases of Alzheimer's in his family -- at least four or five close relatives.

“We do not know when this evil can strike, so if there is an issue on which I have no doubt, no ambiguity,” it’s this one, said Bérubé.

“I read it, the (special commission’s) report, and I really cried at the end, because it was our family’s situation, and maybe it will be mine eventually,” he said.

The report was the result of consultation and a long reflection on the subject by a bi-partisan group of members. The government has only one parliamentary session left, from February to June, if it wants to table and pass a bill on this subject before the end of this mandate.

If a bill modeled on the report is adopted, an advance request for medical assistance in dying could be made by any person of full age who has been diagnosed with a serious and incurable disease leading to incapacity.

The current law, adopted in 2014, sets very strict criteria for when a patient may ask a doctor to induce death. People who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's do not have access to it, under any circumstances, because they are unable to express their informed consent.

For the moment, however, the Legault government refuses to commit to legislating on this subject.

Asked Thursday about the recommendations, Health Minister Christian Dubé remained elusive.

“There is no decision” yet, he said, during a brief press scrum.

He said he was “quite comfortable personally” with the idea of advance requests, but was quick to add that the cabinet must first look into the matter before deciding what direction to take.

The leader of the official opposition, Dominique Anglade, welcomed the committee’s report. She said she was “very comfortable” with the recommendations for advanced requests.

On the side of Quebec solidaire, MP Christine Labrie said she was “personally in favor” of the recommendation. Her colleague, Andrès Fontecilla, said it was necessary to “look at this possibility seriously,” adding he had “not taken a definitive position.”

-- This report was first published by The Canadian Press in French on Dec. 9, 2021