QUEBEC CONTEMPLATES DOCTOR-ASSISTED DEATH FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS
Mar 24, 2017
By Bob Komsic
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The province of Quebec is looking at permitting those with Alzheimer’s and dementia to make advance requests for doctor-assisted death.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette is forming a group of experts that’ll consider expanding the criteria under Quebec’s euthanasia law that came into effect in December 2015.
The province will also ask the courts to clarify a part of the federal assisted death law, which states the procedure should only be available for those whose deaths are ”reasonably foreseeable.”
Barrette says the lack of definition of that phrase poses a ”major problem” for health professionals asked to administer the procedure by those looking to end their suffering.
In addition, a provincial commission, that oversees medically-assisted dying in Quebec, will review the circumstances in which it’s been allowed or refused.
Bill C-14, the federal law, came into effect last June.