Euthanasia cases reported in Quebec
Quebec healthcare authorities have confirmed the first case of legal euthanasia since the province’s groundbreaking law came into force last month, and death-with-dignity advocates report two other cases.
Annie Ouellet, spokeswoman for the Quebec City health- care agency known as the CIUSSS, confirmed Friday that a first request for the procedure had been granted. The unidentified patient, whose condition was not disclosed, received a lethal injection in a Quebec City hospital. Ouellet would not say when the patient died.
The Quebec l aw t ook effect Dec. 10 after a lastminute court challenge was unsuccessful. It legalizes what the province calls “medical aid in dying” for consenting adult patients with an incurable illness who are at the end of life and who are suffering from constant and unbearable pain.
Georges L’Espérance, a physician and president of the death-with-dignity group l ’Association québécoise pour le droit de mourir dans la dignité, said he has been informed of two other euthanasia cases this month, both in the Montreal region.
He said he was not aware of the circumstances of the patients who requested medical aid in dying.
None of the patients has sought to publicize their choice, he said. He added that the most likely candidates for the life-ending procedure are terminal cancer patients.
“The people who are now in that situation are very advanced in their disease, and they do not want to make any show with that, and that’s perfectly correct,” he said.
L’Espérance said he does not expect a large number of physician- assisted deaths in Quebec. “Considering our population here and what has happened in other countries (where euthanasia is legal), I would be very surprised if we have more than 50 or 60 cases in the first year,” he said.
Ouellet said another request is under review in Quebec City. According to the law, a doctor who is asked to provide medical aid in dying must seek confirmation from a second doctor that the law is being respected.
Health authorities in greater Montreal and Sherbrooke told the Montreal Gazette that their data on physician- assisted death is being kept confidential for now. Emmanuelle Paciullo, a spokeswoman f or t he CIUSSS du Centre- Ouest-del’Île-de- Montréal, said the first public data would be available in June 2016.
A spokeswoman for Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette, Joanne Beauvais, said a full provincial report by the Commission sur les soins de fin de vie — a sort of watchdog entity created by the law — must be submitted to the minister no later than Sept. 30, 2016.