A newly-formed grass-roots group has launched a campaign calling on Quebecers to oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide from being brought into the province’s health care system.
“We thought we would need to have a group that would really represent an option different than the one that is proposed by the euthanasia lobby,” says Dr. André Bourque, president of Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity), a nonpartisan, nonreligious group focused on end-of-life issues.
The group plans to make a submission to a traveling parliamentary commission that will soon hold hearings to gather the views of Quebecers on the issue. One of the group’s key arguments is that euthanasia and suicide are killing and as such shouldn’t be “confused with health care.”
The group also has concerns over last November’s announcement that the Quebec College of Physicians and Surgeons, the province’s medical regulatory body, supports legalized euthanasia in some circumstances, such as when an individual faces imminent death.
The college came to its decision after a three-year reflection period, making it the first time in Canada that such a body has come out in favor of euthanasia.
“We are saying death can be an appropriate type of care in certain circumstances,” college Secretary Dr. Yves Robert said at a news conference in Montreal. “This is a major breakthrough.”
Although it is illegal under the Criminal Code to aid in suicide or for a doctor to administer a lethal injection at the patient’s request, the college says that should be changed to allow doctors to legally take the life of certain patients.
Dr. Bourque, a family physician and the head of family medicine at the Montreal University Hospital, says he is worried about the college’s vocabulary implying that euthanasia is a part of end-of-life care.
Dr. Jeff Blackmer, head of the Canadian Medical Association’s office of ethics, has also criticized the college’s stance.
“It’s a group of physicians that are regulators who set the moral and ethical standards for practicing physicians. So they carry a certain amount of weight that could sway public opinion,” he told the National Post.
“We thought we would need to have a group that would really represent an option different than the one that is proposed by the euthanasia lobby,” says Dr. André Bourque, president of Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity), a nonpartisan, nonreligious group focused on end-of-life issues.
The group plans to make a submission to a traveling parliamentary commission that will soon hold hearings to gather the views of Quebecers on the issue. One of the group’s key arguments is that euthanasia and suicide are killing and as such shouldn’t be “confused with health care.”
The group also has concerns over last November’s announcement that the Quebec College of Physicians and Surgeons, the province’s medical regulatory body, supports legalized euthanasia in some circumstances, such as when an individual faces imminent death.
The college came to its decision after a three-year reflection period, making it the first time in Canada that such a body has come out in favor of euthanasia.
“We are saying death can be an appropriate type of care in certain circumstances,” college Secretary Dr. Yves Robert said at a news conference in Montreal. “This is a major breakthrough.”
Although it is illegal under the Criminal Code to aid in suicide or for a doctor to administer a lethal injection at the patient’s request, the college says that should be changed to allow doctors to legally take the life of certain patients.
Dr. Bourque, a family physician and the head of family medicine at the Montreal University Hospital, says he is worried about the college’s vocabulary implying that euthanasia is a part of end-of-life care.
Dr. Jeff Blackmer, head of the Canadian Medical Association’s office of ethics, has also criticized the college’s stance.
“It’s a group of physicians that are regulators who set the moral and ethical standards for practicing physicians. So they carry a certain amount of weight that could sway public opinion,” he told the National Post.
