QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Medical Assistance in Dying
October 29, 2024
Senator Gold, beginning tomorrow, Quebec will allow advance requests for medical assistance in dying for people suffering from a serious and incurable illness leading to incapacity, such as Alzheimer’s. Federal Health Minister Mark Holland felt compelled to make the following clarification. He pointed out that the government hasn’t amended the Criminal Code and, accordingly, advance requests continue to be illegal, while also confirming that Quebec would not be prosecuted. This paradoxical provision remains unclear for doctors in Quebec, who are the ones who evaluate advance requests for MAID. Is that the federal government’s intended objective?
Thank you for the question. As senators know, medical assistance in dying is a matter of shared jurisdiction in Canada. The federal framework set out in the Criminal Code of Canada was carefully designed with strict safeguards to affirm and protect the inherent and equal value of every person’s life. As a health service, MAID is provided by provincial and territorial health care systems as part of end-of-life or complex care under provincial laws and policies. That said, the federal government has made it very clear that the Criminal Code does not authorize the provision of MAID. In the case of advance requests, the person must be able to reconfirm their consent to receive MAID immediately before such assistance is provided. The department also recognized the need for a broader conversation in Canada.
With regard to that conversation, Minister Holland mentioned that he would have liked to hold consultations before Quebec took action. Did you think about the ethical issue that is being debated in Quebec? How can we ensure that we have the consent of a person with Alzheimer’s at the time of the injection, particularly if the person is physically resisting the lethal injection? I think this is a fundamental ethical issue. It hasn’t been resolved and it is the subject of great debate in Quebec right now.
I completely agree. The government does recognize that advance requests are an ethically and practically complex issue on which people have a broad range of perspectives. The federal government will therefore be launching a national conversation about advance requests to consult with the provinces and territories, experts and Canadians and hear their views.
