An Act respecting end-of-life care

The End of Life Care Act , also known as Bill 52 during the legislative process, is a Quebec law whose purpose, according to the bill, is to ensure that people at the end of their lives respectful care of their dignity and recognize their right to respect for their will expressed clearly and freely ¹ . Despite this official goal, the law introduces “medical aid to die”, close to euthanasia , into the Quebec health system. The law has been criticized by doctors demanding that palliative care in Quebec should be improved before or instead of introducing “medical aid to die”.

The law was adopted on 5 June 2014.

Content

Overall, this bill is an integrated approach to end-of-life care, including palliative care . However, the focus of this bill is “medical aid to die”.

Indeed, this bill provides that a person with an incurable disease and suffering exceptional can seek medical assistance to die. With a number of tags ^[which] framed and secured the ^{[non - neutral] process} , the bill succeeded in winning a majority of members of the National Assembly of Quebec . ^{[Ref. necessary]}

Reviews

The text of the bill has been criticized for its use of ” euphemisms ” and “make-up vocabulary” by the fact that it uses, for example, “medical aid to die” instead of ” euthanasia ” ^{2 , 3 , 4} . The Euthanasia Medical Collective, for its part, denounces the adoption of this law by criticizing the inclusion of “medical aid to die” in “end-of-life care” since “care” treat someone to keep her alive and relieve his pain, not to kill her, which, according to the collective of doctors, is a ” homicide ” ⁵ . In addition, the doctors’ collective also condemned the fact that the law provides for a death wish from patients who are the most vulnerable and have the weakest resistance to not abandon or Discourage ⁵ . The doctors of the collective also denounce the repercussions on the healthcare personnel who will be paid to kill; Causing depressions ⁵ . They also criticize the adoption of the law introducing the “medical assistance to die” while only 30% of Quebec’s population is covered by palliative care ⁵ .

The Catholic clergy of Quebec , including Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix , Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada , Archbishop Pierre - André Fournier , Archbishop of Rimouski and President of the Assembly of Bishops of Quebec, and Archbishop Christian Lépine , Archbishop Of Montreal , opposed this bill and this law by declaring it to be a violation of human dignity. ^{6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12} .

Adoption

Bill 52 was introduced in 2013 by the minister responsible for the ” Die in Dignity ” file, Véronique Hivon . With the 2014 general election compromising the final adoption of the bill, Liberal Health Minister Gaétan Barrette put it on the order paper . Bill 52 is one of the few bills to survive a change of government. ^{[Ref. Necessary]} Recognizing the colossal work done by his predecessor, ^{[not neutral]} Minister Barrette appoints co-author Véronique Hivon, then member of the official opposition. ^{[Ref. Necessary]} This bill is finally adopted on June 5, 2014 to 94 deputies against 22. ^{[ref. Necessary]} Only members of the Liberal Party of Quebec opposed the adoption of this law. ^{[Ref. necessary]}

Notes and references