Dying with Dignity law comes into effect

Quebec is ready to help people with assisted suicide after the province’s Dying with Dignity law comes into effect Thursday following a Court of Appeal ruling.

“Concerning medical aid in dying, I want to assure the population that it does not mean that tomorrow there will necessarily be an infinite number of people who are going to ask for access to this procedure,” Health Minister Gaétan Barrette said Wednesday. “But obviously should that be the case, I want to assure the population that Quebec’s health and social services network is ready.”

“People are waiting for that law ... the principle of having the choice is something that people want to have,” he added.

In an attempt to reassure doctors, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée said in a statement Wednesday that she will provide prosecutors in the province with explicit “orientations” not to prosecute those who offer medical aid to die.

Quebec’s Dying with Dignity law, which was adopted in June 2014, offers people who are terminally ill and suffering from unbearable physical or psychological pain the possibility of requesting a doctor’s help to die. Quebec spent six years consulting citizens and experts in a consensus-building manner to elaborate its law.

Last week, Quebec Superior Court sided with Dr. Paul Saba from the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice and Lisa D’Amico, a disabled woman, and ruled the law contradicts provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code when it comes to medically assisted suicide.

In granting the injunction, Justice Michel Pinsonnault ruled that the Quebec law would violate two provisions of the Criminal Code.

The first is Article 14, which states that “no person is entitled to consent to have death inflicted on him” and, the second, Article 241, stipulates that anyone who “aids or abets a person to commit suicide” is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

But on Wednesday, the province’s highest court agreed to hear the government’s appeal of the Superior Court decision suspending key articles of the right-to-die legislation.

Justice Robert Mainville said the appeal would be heard on Dec. 18.

The judge noted that last week’s Superior Court ruling would prevent people who met the conditions spelled out in the Quebec law from receiving euthanasia, potentially for several months.

“Refusing leave to appeal in such an important constitutional file that raises such fundamental questions would be to call into question the raison d’être of the Court of Appeal,” Mainville wrote.

He added that his decision to grant leave to appeal “must not be interpreted as nullifying or confirming the lower court judgment,” which led to confusion about whether Quebec’s law could take force Thursday as initially scheduled when it was adopted in 2014.

Mainville said a hearing on the merits of the appeal should be held “urgently.” Quebec has interpreted his order to suspend the lower court procedures as clearing the way for it to proceed with legalizing euthanasia, which the law calls medical aid in dying.

Gérard Samet, a lawyer who represents a euthanasia opponent in the court challenge of Quebec’s law, disputed whether Mainville had actually suspended the Superior Court ruling. He said it would have been wise for Quebec to delay applying its law until the appeal is heard.

“It should be careful,” he said. “It isn’t so urgent that it cannot wait eight days to let the court of Appeal rule.”

On Wednesday, Parti Québécois MNA Véronique Hivon, who is considered the “mother” of the dying with dignity legislation, was breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s a very important step forward for people who are at the end of their lives. It’s a very important step forward for dignity, compassion, solidarity, for people who are suffering at the end of their lives,” she said.

Saba, who practices medicine at a Montreal hospital, told Radio-Canada he doesn’t want “the province to start giving people lethal injections.”

“What we want is quality palliative care,” he said.

Last February, the Supreme Court ruled that Canadian adults in grievous, unending pain had a right to end their life with a doctor’s help, and gave the federal government one year to present a bill.

Ottawa recently asked the Supreme Court of Canada to give it another six months to make the changes. Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould urged Quebec to suspend its law while her government reflects on the issue. The suggestion was firmly rejected.

Québec solidaire MNA Amir Khadir, who is also a doctor, said he is relieved the court sees medical aid to die as respectful of a patient’s life, dignity and personal liberty. “Justice is done; patients who need medical aid to die will finally be able to receive it, to end their suffering and live their last moments in serenity,” he said.