The Strategy Behind “Medical Aid in Dying”

In order to pass Bill 52 before the Carter decision takes effect, the Quebec government said it was not euthanasia because it would take place in a medical framework.

Consequently, faced with the mass refusal by Quebec health care professionals to participate in what has been called "medical aid in dying" – almost unanimously by those most affected by the issue, the palliative care professionals – the government is in the difficult position of seeing its law virtually impossible to implement.

However, in order to maintain the legal argument that allowed the Canadian Criminal Code to be bypassed, the Quebec government must inevitably bring health care professionals to participate in the implementation of its law, even if it means going against the core principle of medicine whose function is to heal, not to kill.

Contrary to what is being said by the politicians, the campaign of intimidation against health professionals who refuse to participate in any form of euthanasia does not have as its goal the welfare of patients, but seeks above all to apply the unilateral decision of the sponsors of the law, who never took into consideration the majority opinion of the submissions opposed to euthanasia throughout the legalization process in Quebec.

What stands out as particularly worrisome in the manipulative attitude of government authorities is that instead of paying attention to the warning signs raised by palliative care physicians to protect their patients, they prefer to play hard ball and turn a deaf ear to the facts, so as to not see their plans crumble in the face of reality: euthanasia is not welcome in Quebec.

And it is not a solution to human distress.

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