The Legault government wants to extend medical assistance in dying not only to people suffering from Alzheimer’s, but also to those with a serious and incurable disability. Quebec also intends to force palliative care homes to offer this end-of-life care and allow specialized nurse practitioners to administer it.
• Read also: Medical assistance in dying for mentally ill cases postponed for a year
The Legault government on Thursday tabled the new version of its legislative text aimed at broadening the scope of medical assistance in dying for unfit people, such as those suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia.
“The bill allows people with a serious and incurable illness leading to incapacity to consent to care and to make an advance request for medical assistance in dying,” said Minister Sonia Bélanger, who will now lead the case.
As in the first draft of the bill, Quebec is coming back with the possibility for a disabled person (quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, amputation after an accident, etc.) to take advantage of medical assistance in dying. A measure that is not, however, among the recommendations of the report of the cross-partisan commission on the evolution of the Act concerning end-of-life care.
In the text of the law, the end-of-life criterion is also removed from the conditions that a person must meet to obtain medical assistance in dying, in accordance with the Carter and Truchon judgment.
Physicians will no longer be the only ones who can administer medical assistance in dying. The Legault government wants to allow specialized nurse practitioners to administer continuous palliative sedation.
If the bill is adopted, a palliative care home will not be able to exclude medical assistance in dying from its care offer.
More details to come.