No rush to change assisted-death law
Minister says changes to wait until conclusion of parliamentary review
OTTAWA— Newly named Justice Minister David Lametti says he “feels badly” for terminally ill patients who are not able to legally obtain medical assistance to die, but he will not push to change the law on informed consent before the next election.
Any changes would have to wait until the conclusion of a five-year parliamentary review about how the new regime is working, says Lametti.
That review is not expected to happen until 2021, five years after the bill passed, meaning well into the next government’s mandate.
Lametti, when asked if he would change the law if the Liberal government is re-elected to a new term and he is back in the justice portfolio, said only that “certainly we’ll commit to a legislative process that looks at all the issues that have been raised.”
Groups like Dying with Dignity Canada say the law’s requirement that grievously ill patients be able to offer “informed consent” at the time of any procedure puts it beyond reach of many patients in advanced stages of diseases like cancer, who otherwise meet all the eligibility criteria.
When Parliament debated the bill to allow assisted suicide for patients in 2016 — which was the government’s response to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling recognizing it as a right — Lametti was one of four Liberal MPs who voted against it.
A McGill University law professor who took a leave to enter politics, Lametti specifically voiced his concern the law was open to a constitutional challenge by patients who would be forced to either suffer or choose an earlier death while they still had the mental capacity to offer informed consent.
In an interview with the Star on Thursday, Lametti said he would not move to change the law now that he holds the job of Canada’s justice minister and attorney general. “I had my say.” When he was first appointed, he did not close the door on changes, but last week he was categoric.
“I do feel badly for anyone who is put through that situation, both the person who is struggling with some sort of tragic illness as well as the family around them and friends around them,” said Lametti. “So I am very sympathetic to that.”
But Lametti said the parliamentary process struck “an important balance” that he respects, and a five-year review would be able to assess “data” and “evidence” about the impact the law is having.
The bill also prohibits assisted dying for minors or those with mental illness.
“I think the bill as it stands is an important marker, an important first step in a moral and ethical debate, as well as healthlaw debate, a policy debate,” said Lametti. “And so the balance that was struck was appropriate in terms of that first step; I think it’s too early to do anything else.”
Dying with Dignity Canada president Shanaaz Gokool said she was deeply disappointed in Lametti’s stance.
The group has highlighted tragic cases like that of a Nova Scotia woman, Audrey Parker, who had stage four breast cancer that spread to her brain, who was approved by physicians for assisted death, but who ended up choosing an earlier death rather than risk losing her capacity to consent at a later time.
“The government already has the evidence, they know the impact on people like Audrey Parker and their family,” said Gokool. “How many Audrey Parkers will it take — and these are people who are ending their lives earlier than they want to with an assisted death for fear of losing the right altogether — before the government recognizes what a severe and grave violation of people’s Charter right this is?” she said in an interview.
Dying with Dignity Canada launched a campaign on Feb. 6, the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Carter ruling, to urge the government to modify the law.
Gokool said if the government won’t act to draw up what she called a “narrow amendment” to allow certain patients to draw up a written declaration of advance consent, then “certainly organizations like ours will look to all political and legal options.”
Other advocates like Campaign Life Coalition who long opposed the law, had worried Lametti would expand the right to die. However he made clear it is not among his priorities.
He said right now, “It’s a better situation than it was beforehand when there was no possibility of medically assisted death and so, in that sense, it is a marked improvement.”