Assisted deaths to be called ‘natural’
Opponents say move would conceal truth
Doctors’ leaders in Quebec are poised to recommend euthanasia be kept off death certificates.
Instead, doctors could be encouraged to classify deaths by lethal injection as “natural” deaths on public death records.
As part of new guidelines, Quebec’s College of Physicians is considering recommending doctors list the underlying illness as the cause of death in cases of “medical aid in dying,” not euthanasia.
The college’s leaders say they want to ensure life insurance benefits are not denied to families in cases of euthanasia.
They emphasize Quebec’s assisted-death law will require any doctor who administers euthanasia to report each death to a special oversight body. That information will be kept confidential or shared with the college and/or hospitals.
Euthanasia opponents are denouncing the proposal as an attempt to conceal the truth. It is also creating unease among some doctors, who worry misstating the cause of death on certificates could make it difficult to track assisted death numbers, once it becomes legal in Canada in February, and whether it is being performed legally.
An assisted death is not a “natural” death by definition, said Dr. William Cunningham, a Victoria emergency and family physician and past president of Doctors of BC.
“Which then raises the whole ethical issue, the one of honesty and integrity: should a doctor knowingly fill out something incorrectly?”
Under Bill 52, Quebec’s aid in dying law, due to come into force Dec. 10, mentally fit adults suffering an incurable illness and in an advanced and irreversible state of decline will be permitted to ask for euthanasia.
“Probably our proposal will be to write on the death certificate (that) the cause of death (was) the basic pathology that was behind the reason why physician assisted death was used,” said Dr. Yves Robert, secretary of Quebec’s College of Physicians.
“The consensus was to say that. It’s a guideline and may be it will be updated as further discussion occurs.”
Robert said the college worries insurance companies could use the death certificate to deny a claim or refuse to pay beneficiaries in cases of assisted death — even though the Quebec law contains a provision that a person’s decision to seek euthanasia cannot be used as a reason to deny death benefits to the family.
“Whatever is written on the death certificate, it is mandated by the law that a report on the whole process must be reported to the commission on end-of-life care and/or the college,” he said.