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On January 15, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the Government of Canada an extension of only four months (until June 2016) to formulate and adopt a law in keeping with the Carter decision, which allows assisted suicide in Canada. The Court also agreed to exempt Québec from the extension so that its euthanasia law can remain in effect. If the federal government does not legislate on the issue within this time, Canada's assisted suicide law will be null ...

Continue Reading → An extension for the Federal government and an exemption for Québec

NOTE: The original article was published in French in the Huffintgon Post on December 23, 2015 (link here >>).

The official entry into force of the articles of the law on "medical aid in dying" marks the beginning of the end of professional judgment and medical expertise. Medicine just made a big step backwards exacerbating an unhealthy social wound: the answer to human suffering is too complex (and too costly) to cope with.

With this in mind, we are presented ...

Continue Reading → The Return of Bloodletting: Welcome to 2016

Today, the Quebec Court of Appeal declared that the Criminal Code provisions "that prohibit medical aid in dying cannot by themselves prevent the entry into force and implementation" of the provisions of the Act respecting end-of-life care related to medical aid in dying since they were declared invalid by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter decision (at para. 44). We take note of this decision but we still deplore this choice as an answer to end-of-life suffering.

It should ...

Continue Reading → The Quebec Court of Appeal judgment does not end the dispute